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.
“If you can dream it, you can do it!” said Walt Disney….and then came Disneyland!
“I have a dream” shouted Martin Luther King on the Washington mall to 250,000 people.
“Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.” wrote Dr. Ben Carson whose life was one of hardship before becoming a surgeon.
Assume that you are building a house. First, you would have the plans for the building to study and prepare for construction. You would then implement the plan and begin building the house, taking care to follow the plan and do each task systematically and in order. Sometimes you will deviate from the plan due to new information and then prepare a change order modifying the plan. You take care to make sure the plumbing and electrical are all in place before you hang the drywall. You have to have all the right parts in the right places in order to have the right house.
Few companies have found the holy grail of management: High Employee Engagement. In the average company, about 32 percent of employees are actively engaged in their work and about 20 percent actively disrupt operations. But for those who figure it out, the rewards are unmistakable. Companies who score at the top quartile of employee engagement outperform those in the bottom quartile on virtually every measure of success. The Gallup Organization finds the gap in performance between top and bottom quartile companies varies from a low of ten to a high of seventy percentage points depending on what dimension of performance is studied. Here is short sampling of those performance gaps.
There has been much written about building the right team. Here are some thoughts from top business leaders:
John Maxwell – Unity Begins with the Leader – A true team – one whose members work together to achieve greatness – has a unified vision.
Simon Sinek – Start with Why – It’s important for team members to know why the team exists and does what it does.
I’ve been through another season of funerals—8 in the past 3 months. Family, friends and business associates passed on and so I attended their memorial service or celebration of life, depending on their belief system. This now regular event gave me ample opportunity to pause and reflect on my own destiny, something that, I hope, you all do on occasion.
