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.
‘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.
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.
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.
As a business consultant and coach, some of the most powerful and transformational moments I've experienced have been the simple act of telling a business leader or executive team something that they already know. Reflecting on this made me ask why we so often know the right thing, but fail to do it.
Many business leaders right now are recognizing this brutal reality: their current sales and marketing methods are not built for these trying times.
The pressure is building for companies to get their sales back up, but it’s a real struggle.
Clients are putting projects, jobs, and events (and accounts payable) on hold indefinitely. Many consumers have lost their jobs or are worried they will soon. Social distancing requirements are continuing to create substantial barriers to the business’s normal flow everywhere from the retail floor to the manufacturing floor. Travel is still heavily restricted, and uncertainty abounds.
What are you going to say when the prospect asks, “Why should I buy from you?”
Oh, it is going to happen to you. You best be prepared for the question and you most definitely must be prepared for your answer.
Several years ago, when I was with the Zig Ziglar Corporation, the account executive, Margaret and I were conducting a phone call with a prospect in Atlanta. Margaret had interacted with the prospect a few times and I was asked to help close the training engagement.
Follow me on this one. I am going to make a comparison between you and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The analogy is a good one to use in the sales profession. At the conclusion of this, I wish you would think about this comparison. Here are some facts about The Golden Gate Bridge. It was first opened to traffic on May 28, 1937. It is known as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World." It was built to withstand a huge traffic load. The annual revenue generated by tolls on the bridge was $59,289,000 in fiscal year 2002! That's a lot of quarters.
The annual traffic in fiscal year 2012 was 40,694,792 vehicles. The monthly load on The Golden Gate Bridge is 3,391,233. That equates to a total of 111,493 vehicles each and every day for an entire year. WOW! This is truly an engineering marvel. The engineers who designed this structure were pretty smart.
OK. Now, here is the point. The Golden Gate Bridge was designed to handle the traffic load in a systematic way. In other words, if you were to put the annual load of 40 million vehicles on the bridge at the same time, it would collapse under the weight. The bridge was not designed to handle that type of load. If you were to put the entire monthly load of 3.9 million vehicles on the bridge at the same time, it would collapse under the weight. The bridge was not designed to handle that type of load. THE BRIDGE WAS DESIGNED TO HANDLE ONE DAY AT A TIME. So are we!
It is important - even vital - that we plan our sales year, our sales quarter, our sales month, and our sales day. By so doing, we have a better chance of achieving our sales goals. However, we have to handle our sales career one-day at a time. If not we will collapse under the weight.
