When you think of your workplace, is the word “joyful” one of the descriptors that come to mind?
If you are old school like me, you learned that the workplace is a place for BUSINESS and that it required a strict adherence to PROFESSIONALISM that required a wiping clean of any and all personality or play. Those were also the days where overtime was the expectation and where work-life balance meant that your life was 90% work and 10% everything else crammed into the one day that you were off a week.
Just like those old, harmful workplace cultures, the idea that the workplace is supposed to be a joyless, sterile place (leave your personality at the door) is rapidly being thrown to the wayside in favor of workplace cultures that welcome you being you and the concept of leading your team with joy.
Why lead with joy?
Bringing joy into the workplace has numerous benefits, and not just for your employees. This fantastic Forbes article lists just a few:
It is almost as if when you treat people well, and treat them like humans, that they thrive! What a concept. 😜
Read on to learn how to start infusing joy into your management style. Your employees (and your customers!) will be better for it.
Ready to lead with more joy? Here are a few actionable tips, adapted from this fantastic Forbes article.
Encourage Positivity: Fostering an optimistic outlook encourages flexibility and resiliency in thinking and problem solving. Now what this does not mean is gaslighting or using toxic positivity to ignore a problem.
Here are a few ways that you can encourage positivity as a leader:
Cultivate Kindness: Promoting kindness and opportunities to give back to the community help people feel more fulfilled and purposeful, and that kindness and satisfaction spills over into a kinder, more fulfilled and content workplace.
Here are a few ways to add kindness to your workplace:
Here are a few things to try:
Looking for a way to inject a little more joy into your everyday? So am I! Here is one recent resource that I found that is bringing me joy: DailyGood.org. It has positive news stories, both big and small, as well as inspirational quotes, and the opportunity to contribute your own good news stories.
Is your team ready to lead? Find out now, and develop some actionable items to get your team where they need to be.
The title says it all. If you want to find more joy and start to savor the everyday, this book is a great place to start.
Making a purchase from one of the links below returns a small portion of the sale to MentorLoft.
From the publisher:
Matthew Kelly spent thirty years rushing from one thing to the next. Leaving one thing early, arriving at the next thing late, squeezing as much as was inhumanely possible into each day—always striving for more, better, and faster.
But then something changed.
Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy is a deeply personal book. It provides a rare and intimate look at the author’s own struggles with busy and urgent. By revealing his own vulnerabilities, Kelly provides us with the practical insights and timeless wisdom necessary to banish busy and urgent from our own lives.
The faster you go the more likely you are to crash, but we just keep going faster. We think if we get all the urgent stuff done, we will have time for what’s important. But we never do.
Busy is not your friend. Only a toxic friend leaves you feeling anxious, overwhelmed, discouraged, exhausted, stressed, inadequate and resentful. It’s time to take our lives back from this tyrant.
The speed and busyness of our lives stand in direct opposition to what we say matters most. It’s time for a new strategy. It’s time to embrace the speed of joy.
Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy isn’t just a book. It’s a way of life. It will quite simply and in every way imaginable change your life.
What is bringing you joy lately? I want to know! Hit reply, and tell me.
Remember: Leaders don’t bail. Leaders FINISH STRONG.