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

strategies

Buy a Better Dog

IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO ALL THE BARKING…don’t buy a dog! Leaders in our companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars and untold hours interviewing various “experts” to help them with web development, SEO, marketing, IT and a host of other services. We engage in this “search and select” mission because at some point we realize we don’t have the particular expertise we needed in-house.

And so we (I use the generic we here) make the big decision—we buy a dog!

Our new expert spends time and money getting to know us: our challenges, our opportunities and all the other things they need to be able to deliver on our expectations. They go away to "expert-land," work like crazy, review, revise and prepare solutions they feel are tailor-made to deliver on what they were hired to do. They wrap all of their strategies, tactics, ideas and recommendations up in a tight little presentation and present them to us with enthusiasm and conviction.

Then the fun begins…the “Well, I don’t know,” and the “We’ve never done it that way,” and the “In my experience” comments begin to fly, and the expert starts to backpedal, modify, alter and morph to make the "solution" ever so much more comfortable and familiar to us. In other words—we’ve forgotten why we bought the dog in the first place. We start barking away, while the poor mutt runs around opening and closing its mouth on cue.

Bottom line…if we are going to do all of the barking, don't buy a dog. If we really want help, buy a better dog in the beginning!

To get the help we need, we have to hire a dog that really knows how to bark and is willing to growl at us if we won’t let them do their job. Then we need to let them loose! It may be uncomfortable at first as we relinquish a little control, but in the end we’ll benefit from their expertise, experience and know-how. And we’ll save our vocal cords to boot!