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

Faith

On Reaping the Blessing from Adversity

In contrast to popular thinking, adversity is the wind at our back James 1:2. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

When trouble hits in the Christian’s life, we would be best suited to run toward the trouble rather than away; embrace it rather than despise it, and profit from it rather than fear it. Tragically, the inherent growth God has for us during times of trouble is often missed because we spend most of our energy escaping from comfort to comfort instead of seizing the value of this uniquely divine appointment called a trial. Understanding God’s purpose in adversity is the beginning of our wisdom in deriving value from them, and the catalyst to make peace with a perceived enemy who will never cease. This truth remains: God sends or allows headwinds into our lives to build our strength, draw us closer to Him, and to improve our character. Some winds are light, some strong, some contain sand, yet other winds seem laden with chards of glass. Yet each wind has ordained value regardless of the pain or difficulty it brings. Unfortunately, when trouble comes, the norm is to be consumed by the problem, and when the problem becomes the focus, the great work God is doing in the midst of it becomes blurred or vanishes from sight. If we connect to God’s promise about trials, we will experience His brilliance in them. We will see His perfect plan, how He wants to use us, who He wants us to be for others and who He wants us to engage with to leverage the adversity into value. One who encounters a wind of sorts and defaults to dwelling on the problem is certain to become “spiritually dysfunctional, possibility limited, and solution paralyzed.” One who encounters wind and moves to looking at what God is trying to accomplish through the problem will turn the headwind into the tailwind that it already was.

The question is: What would it look like to profit from one trial you are currently in?

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Follow as I Follow

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Follow as I Follow

One beautiful aspect of this digital age is the capacity to scan in old documents and free up precious bookshelf space. My bookshelves once held massive black notebooks, full of more than 30 years of preaching manuscripts. I’ve slowly been scanning them in, giving me the opportunity to re-read some awful as well as some beautifully tender stuff, in addition to gaining board footage for boxed up books I had not found room for previously.