Joy: What A Great Leader Needs To Know
Whether you lead a team or lead yourself, when you are leading with joy you understand the importance joy plays in igniting creativity and innovation; the role it plays in maintaining a healthy mind; and how it improves empathy, communication and connection. When you are leading with joy you know that it can’t always be about work, that sometimes purposeless is good.
But what exactly is joy? According to the Oxford Dictionary Joy is a vivid feeling of great pleasure and happiness. So, joy is an emotion. And you don’t have go any further than the ABC’s Documentary Series “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Old’s” to see what joy looks like.
In this social experiment, overseen by a team of experts in geriatric health and wellbeing, the physical and mental changes such as strength and cognition among the older people as well as the developmental growth of the children were tracked and analysed. And through this social experiment you quickly see the benefits of joy are many, including a greater sense of well-being and improved emotional and cognitive development. Joy that was sourced through play, painting, gardening, exercise and social interaction.
“Joy is play, pure purposeless play”
And this is exactly how I define joy – play; it’s more than simply self-care ie fitness and nutrition. Joy encompasses a diverse range of activities, from hobbies to indulgence, from connection through to play. All of which are as unique and diverse as each individual, there is no right or wrong. And if you have watched the video you would agree that play brings the greatest feeling of pleasure and happiness.
Dr Stuart Brown is the Founder of the National Institute of Play and bestselling Author of Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. He has researched play for most of his career and he states that play is a key source of joy. It helps us navigate complex social groups, improves and fosters empathy and is the core to creativity and innovation. In fact, his work found that play is essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to problem solve and more.
He also states that, particularly in tough times, we need to play more than ever, as it's the very means by which we prepare for the unexpected, search out new solutions, and remain optimistic. Companies across the world are experiencing ‘tough times’ and will continue to experience ‘tough times’ as they face increased uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity across all functions of the organisation.
Now more than ever it is critical that leaders learn how to lead with joy and, through play, build and maintain highly effective, high performing teams. Because it is through play teams increase collaboration and communication, develop improved problem-solving capability and it’s that increased feeling of joy that increases belonging and morale. Now before you dismiss all this warm fuzzy feeling stuff as a waste of time, I personally have successfully integrated joy into the team environment, including my own teams, through a mix of weekly, monthly and quarterly rituals. I’ve seen firsthand the improvement at both the individual and team level. As part of a team strategy day, I incorporated a Commonwealth Games event in the park; using straws for javelin, paper plates for discus and water balloons for shotput. And if you were to ask any one of those team members today, they will recall with vivid memory not only the joy experienced but also clearly explain how that day improved the team’s cohesion and productivity.
“Leaders who lead with joy are purposeful leaders.”
Still not convinced? Let’s look at the consequences when there is a lack of, or no joy.
“The opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression”
First and foremost are the health risks. The research clearly identifies increased rates of depression and stress-related diseases, as well as a decreased immune system at the individual level. At the team level, it results in burnout, high turnover, lack of collaboration and communication, and, of course, low morale; all of which results in deceased productivity and increased costs.
According to Dr. Stuart Brown play is more than just fun. It's a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. So, why not give it a go and do a little experiment of your own similar to the Old People’s Home for 4 Year Old’s. You may not be able to bring toddlers into your work environment, as fun as that might sound, but you can take the lessons learned from them on how to play. After all they are the experts in play.
Where to start if you are a leader wanting to identify and bring joy into your own life or that of the life of your team:
Be Curious: Do you know what brings you joy? Stop and think about what actually brings you joy by asking yourself what made time stand still for you when you were 4 year’s old? It’s the things that brought you joy then that will still bring you joy now. And don’t forget to ask your team the same question.
Experiment: Write a list of all the activities and begin to experiment. Find the activities that work best for you and your team. Then experiment with how you can integrate them into your work environment.
Courage: Don't be embarrassed to recommend or integrate joy into your life or that of the work environment. You'll be surprised how much everyone will enjoy it, even the most stubborn won’t be able to resist the fun, connection and laughter.
Make time: Make time for joy and walk the talk. Don’t only commit to it once or twice. Consciously create new habits and find ways to integrate the activities into already existing team rituals. Then it won’t seem like additional effort or work.
Mix it up: Being joyful is about integrating non-repetitive activities into your day, week, month, year, and life. So, mix it up, stay curious, create experiments and have fun.
I’d love to hear your own thoughts and experiences with joy.