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.
What recent leadership learnings have changed or will change the world? Elon Musk thought of an electric car with an iPad-like screen called a Tesla. How about the people or team that invented the idea of the world wide web? Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook and changed how we interact as a culture. What about remote diagnostic medicine or home security with no wires?
Many business leaders say they have a management (leadership) team. Is it a high performing team? Is it a team in name only? Or, is it really an amazing team? What is an amazing team?
I have worked with leaders and teams for the past 35 years. From this experience, observation, and interviews, I believe there are 5 keys to developing and having an amazing team. Before taking the first step to developing an amazing team, you must be a committed leader who not only wants an amazing team, but is willing to be vulnerable, communicative and accountable.
Let me introduce you to my father. His name was Frank H. Wheeler, Jr., but everyone called him by his nickname given to him in college – ‘Moon’ (it’s not what you think – it was because he had a round face that resembled the ‘man in the moon’). Moon was a most interesting character. He was born and raised on a Mississippi cotton farm in the depression. He received an aeronautical engineering degree from Mississippi State; flew a P-51 fighter plane in the Pacific theatre in WWII; worked for North American Aviation at LAX after the war; built, flew and competed in his personal aerobatic biplane (Pitts S-1C); and spent the vast majority of his life as a Chevrolet dealer. He was a smart, capable and educated man. He was also a perfectionist who once told me that “If you’re going to do something, and do it right, do it yourself!” Even though truth lived within those words, that advice was not scalable.
Many folks who get started in some sort of associational arrangement, be it a franchise, a business partnership, chartering a club with a national organization, establishing a congregation connected to a denomination, or simply licensing some intellectual property, do so thinking that pooling resources makes sense. It somehow feels less expensive or time-consuming, else they wouldn’t do it.
