ClickCease
Matt Rusten
Why Joy is Vital for Your Leadership and Company

Is joy an underrated asset in your leadership? In our latest article, Matt Rusten explores why joy, much like humor, plays a vital role in building a thriving company culture. From increasing team engagement to fostering resilience, joy can transform workplace dynamics and inspire purpose-driven work. Discover three key ways to cultivate joy in your organization and why it’s essential for leaders who seek both results and fulfillment.

Why Joy is Vital for Your Leadership and Company
Business, Faith, Faith at Work
Convene
Do Not Worry

‘Do not worry.’ We’ve read Matthew 6:25-34 in the Sermon on the Mount, but what does that look like on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute basis? God knows our every worry, fear, and concern – and He can handle it. Many thanks to Darrell Passwater, Convene Forum Team leader, for his encouragement to think about how our lives might be different by truly living out this scriptural principle.

Do Not Worry
Greg Leith
Who Will Lead Your Firm the Day After the ...

Got a quick minute to chat? I’ve been wanting to share something with you as you lead in the midst of the election cycle in the USA or when your political election takes place in your country. When the dust settles on the election and the new country leader is declared, one thing will still be as true as it is right now. You’ll still be the one leading your firm the day after the election. Your team members will still come to work the day after the winner is declared. They’ll still be looking to you for leadership, for a paycheck, for a sense of community at their workplace.

What do they want most that only you can deliver? It’s meaning. That meaning they’re looking for begins with you and your leadership. To be sure, what Washington DC does actually can impact your business significantly, however, the president of the United States or the leader of any country does not lead your firm. You do. It’s an enterprise entrusted to you to lead as a steward. It’s a place where people look to you for answers, where people want to be part of a team that cares about them and where people want to be valued, appreciated, and loved. The next president of the country will not show up this week at your office to encourage your team, fix a broken piece of equipment, hire the next team member, sell a big account, or cast a bold vision about how your team will reach your goals and impact the culture.

Who Will Lead Your Firm the Day After the Election?
Chip Neidigh
A Safe Place To Fall
A Safe Place To Fall
Dave Ulrich
3 Principles of Hope That Enable Transitions

As we find ourselves mid-October and a blink away from a new calendar year, it is an opportunity to prepare for how we view transitions. Transitions allow for reflection and renewal, for letting go and beginning anew, and for learning from the past and creating the future. Instead of laying out trends for the next year, I would like to comment on a fundamental enabler of any transition: hope. Leaders who want to improve, CEO’s who work toward excellence, HR professionals who aspire to deliver more value, and employees who seek well-being all achieve their transitions by realizing hope.

Hope integrates many of the positive traits that shape transitions for others and matter to me personally: learning, patience, service, faith, humility, optimism, gratitude, and so forth. I send hundreds of formal and informal e-mails every month to invite people to programs, to thank people for attending programs, to check in on those I mentor, and to stay connected to those I care about. I begin almost every one of these notes with “Hope you are well.” Hope is one of my personal desires, tag lines, and biases and an enabler of any transition.

If I could implant one trait in my family, friends, and colleagues who are undergoing continual transition, it would be hope. 

3 Principles of Hope That Enable Transitions

product satisfaction

,

The Three P’s of Satisfaction

,

Any time you need to guide a major change or help others resolve a conflict, you have the potential to make one or more people very unhappy. This is true whether you’re negotiating a business contract, selecting a new department manager, cutting your operating budget, or resolving differences within your executive team. In each of these situations, one person or group may end up praising you while another is grumbling behind your back … if not to your face.

Having mediated hundreds of legal, business, and organizational disputes, I’ve found that I am far more likely to end up with satisfied people on all sides if I make a concerted effort to provide everyone with the “Three P’s of Satisfaction.”

  • Process satisfaction requires a fair, orderly, and even-handed process where everyone feels that they’ve had a reasonable opportunity to present their side of the matter (1 Cor. 14:40). This requires that everyone is given all the time they need to prepare and present their thoughts. When you ask, “Is there anything else anyone would like to say,” you want everyone to respond, “No, I’ve shared everything I see as being relevant; thank you for hearing me out.”

  • Personal satisfaction requires treating everyone with respect, courtesy, and equality, just as you would want to be treated yourself (Matt. 7:12, James 2:1-4). This kind of treatment involves careful listening, genuine empathy, and gracious communication (Prov. 22:11).

  • Product satisfaction requires a final agreement or decision that is as reasonable, just and equitable as is humanly possible (Micah 6:8; Prov. 28:5).

Here’s the key to this process: although most people involved in a decision-making (or conflict-resolving) process will focus most of their energy on achieving a particular outcome (product satisfaction), in the long run they will also place a great deal of value on how they were treated during the process.

This means that even if a final decision is not entirely to their liking, they will often accept the result with equanimity if the decision-makers provided them with a high level of both process and personal satisfaction.

I cannot emphasize this point too much: Give people process satisfaction (the opportunity to fully and candidly share their views) as well as personal satisfaction (treating them with sincere courtesy and respect), and you’ll be surprised how content they’ll be even if they disagree with your substantive decision.

And if you succeed in giving people all three types of satisfaction, you’ll find that they will trust and respect you more, and genuinely support the decisions you make.

By the way … the Three P’s of Satisfaction are fully transferable: they work just as well at home and in church as they do at the office.

So whether you’re dealing with a corporate issue, a marriage conflict, a debate with your teenager, or differing positions at an elders’ meeting, you’ll be far more likely to preserve respect, unity, and relationships if you make every reasonable effort to provide everyone involved with process, personal, and product satisfaction.

 

Ken Sande is the founder of Peacemaker Ministries and Relational Wisdom 360 and the author of numerous books on biblical conflict resolution, including The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict.