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.
The haunting feeling of isolation is among the top reasons a business leader will seek out Convene Peer Advisory Groups. It’s really kind of strange how we need connection and community and so seldom find it.
There are several syndromes that hamper the leader in this quest for connection.
Leadership, in my view, consists of the merger of heart and science (in that order). Leadership in God’s Kingdom is learned, driven by character, and operated with excellence.
Heart generates vision statements, mission statements and values developed in relationship with the Holy Spirit living in and through us.
Time is your most important scarce resource. Does anyone have enough time in this information overload age? Gadgets are blasting us—tempting us with “news” stories that we all too often chase down with regret. TVs give too many options, yet people still lament there is nothing to watch. T.S. Eliot had it right decades ago when he wrote, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”. People have way too much information and way too little of what they really need—wisdom, and the focus to implement it. There is urgency all around in a world that needs importance.
There are numerous examples in the Bible about pride and its consequences in the lives of leaders and followers. And, having worked over the years with hundreds of leaders, and having interviewed over 5,000 of them, I have seen so many leaders like those in the Bible. I have witnessed their disgrace, as written in Proverbs 11: 2 (ESV); “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble wisdom.” In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” And pride prevents you from serving God.
In thinking about the area of strategic leadership it’s important to understand that being strategic about your organizational culture is as important as being strategic about marketing, the product or the service your company provides. Executing on your strategic plans is primarily a product of the company culture. To use my friend Jim Eaton’s language from Kingdom Partner Solutions, “execution must become a cultural competency”. Giving proper attention to the company culture is a key responsibility of the primary leaders if you want to see long-term sustainable growth and a healthy work environment.
