Joyful Leader

You feel called, drawn, compelled. To a project, a role, a career. And this thing that you feel drawn to, you also feel incredible resistance to. You avoid putting yourself in the chair and doing the work. You fight your way through doubt and overwhelm as you do it. You dread the delivery of the thing you created. Welcome to resistance — the force that often shows up between us and what we’re here...

What’s the most emotionally heavy team you’ve ever worked on? You probably had an immediate answer to that question. Heaviness, or emotional weight, is problematic within an organization. On today’s Joyful Leader, we’re making sure it doesn’t weigh your team down. We’ll talk about what it is, where it comes from, why it’s such a problem, and how to prevent it. Thanks for listening. Hungry for more...

You consider yourself an open-door leader. And yet, there are times when you want more feedback from your team. Maybe you get crickets when you ask for feedback after a meeting presentation. Or maybe when you ask your team for feedback about you as a manager, they tell you everything’s great. Today on the podcast, we’re talking about how to get great, specific, actionable feedback from your team....

The habits of an organization either build culture or erode it. This episode is the next installment of the culture eroder (and corresponding culture builder) series. And today’s culture eroder is: lack of ownership. Lack of ownership as a habit within an organization leads to a lot of heaviness — a sense of drag, protracted processes, and lack of clarity. It usually happens innocently, and for so...

No amount of training will help your team grow as much as what you show them. Who you are as a leader — how you make decisions, who you consider when making them, how you approach problems, how you interact with other people — all of these things are more powerful teaching tools than any content or training outline. Today on the podcast, we’re talking about the greatest teaching and mentoring tool...

There’s an honest mistake that organizations make when hiring capable people. They think that someone’s capacity and depth of experience mean they will be autonomous and independent right away without a lot of guidance. Essentially, the mistake is thinking that hiring great people means you don’t have to do anything to set them up for success. Today on the podcast, I’m talking about why this could...

Step one: build a strong culture. Step two: maintain a strong culture. Daily. It’s common to think that culture is something you build once and lasts forever. But really, your culture is ever-evolving. With every season, new hire, initiative, and priority shift, your culture is changing. Rather than being set-it-and-forget-it, maintaining a strong culture is a constant part of leadership. Tune in...

There are many rubrics and wisdom out in the world about decision-making. Today on Joyful Leader, I’m sharing a tool to help you understand a decision before you make it. It’s a tool for deeper self-awareness and understanding. Using this tool helps you make decisions and take actions in line with your values, priorities, and integrity. I mean, come on. Who doesn’t want that? It’s something I use...

Welcome to the next installment of the culture eroder (and corresponding culture builder) series. And today’s culture eroder is: power language. Power language is anything that draws conspicuous attention to power differentials within your team or organization. Power language can take the form of using titles when it’s not necessary, building mystery around certain meetings or decisions that not e...

On the horizon is a series of episodes all about feedback . . . get excited. But today, we’re starting with a client request. Many of my clients have had a-ha moments in our conversations about feedback when we look at the real reason they’re not delivering feedback to a team member. So today we’re going to talk about the shift that turns the reason we think we’re not giving feedback into the actu...

If you’ve listened to the podcast, you know that culture is my middle name. Culture — the values of your organization and the behaviors they drive — is queen. Organizations with strong, intentional cultures generally adapt more quickly, ride economic and other waves more successfully, have better retention rates, and get more done. On today’s episode, we’re talking about a few cultural/values diff...

As a leader, there are three general components to your work experience: you, your team, and the work you do. How you think about these things, and the priority you give them, can make a huge difference in how you experience your role overall and your day-to-day. Today on the podcast, I’m contrasting two different models of leadership and the different results they create for you when you’re in on...

The habits of an organization either build culture or erode it. In our 2nd Culture Eroder (Culture Builder) episode, we’re talking about indecision. Indecision is slow and heavy; it weighs down your organization rather than creating energy and momentum. It can look like a lack of ownership, putting off decisions, or taking too long to make them. And the antidote is clear, right-speed, well-owned d...

On today’s Joyful Leader, we’re talking more about decisions. Specifically, how to break down a decision into its component parts — or anatomy — and how doing this can help us make the right decisions in the right amount of time. Whether you’re applying this to your own life, to your team, or to your company, this breakdown will be tangible and immediately implementable. Thanks for listening. Hung...

Decisions are how we move forward and generate momentum in our lives and work. We decide, we move forward, we learn . . . lather, rinse, repeat. Over the next few episodes, we’re going to talk about decisions — what they are, how to make them at the right pace, and what makes a decision good. We’re starting with the idea of full decision-making. Or, acknowledging and understanding that every decis...

When I first began supervising people, one of the first components of my management training was a session all about building trust. Trust is fundamental. It’s a building block of a healthy culture and a great work environment. It may just be THE building block — the thing without which you can’t create anything else. It’s always stuck with me that this was the first thing I learned — correctly pl...

The habits of an organization either build culture or erode it. And today, we’re talking about a big culture eroder: wasting people’s time. Time wasting often happens in some predictable buckets. Today on the podcast, we’ll dive into each of them so you can spot whether these are happening at your company or on your team. And nip them in the bud. I’ll also share the culture builder that prevents t...

In my community, we do goals. We love goals. Setting them, achieving them. And, we do goals in some very specific ways. Today I’m sharing my rules for goals, starting with the biggest and most important: goals are about skill-building, and never, ever about worth-building. Let’s talk more — about what this means, about the other goal rules that will help you have an amazing relationship to your ow...

Our emotions are like fuel in our tanks. They take us where we need to go, and like actual fuel, have different properties. Some burn clean for miles and miles. Others burn hot and fast and powerful over a short distance. Today on Joyful Leader, we’re talking about emotions as fuel — why willpower is only useful to a point, and how to fill your tank with the fuel that will take you the distance. T...

Last week we discussed purpose — and how it is always internal, never external. In our lives, we choose containers in which to express our purpose, including our jobs. This week, we’re exploring a specific aspect of this — feeling like you’ve lost your connection to purpose at work. If you’ve been there, you know. Feeling like the thing you're doing no longer lights you up like it used to. Tune in...

I hear from a lot of people that they are looking for — or haven’t yet found — their purpose. In today’s episode, we’re going to clarify where purpose lives. And where it doesn’t. So many of us think of purpose as a thing — something outside of ourselves that will light us up when we finally encounter it. But this definition has us looking in the wrong place, and can make us feel like we’re on a n...

An essential part of leadership is knowing where to direct your attention. Given the number of things we have on our plates at any one time and our finite attention, how do we choose? Today, we’re talking about a simple tool for directing your attention and honing your instincts about what to give your attention to. This tool is also exceptional for developing your team members' leadership instinc...

On a regular basis, my clients bring up observations about the way their companies operate, often in the context of their leadership teams. They notice default communication styles, teaching styles, decision-making processes . . . and many other behaviors and attitudes that set tone and culture at their organizations. And, sometimes, they feel like their observations are just about them. They’ll s...

Confidence and arrogance are VERY different things. They are both emotions, but come from different mindsets, and look very different. AND YET. :) We sometimes confuse them. We think that our confidence will come across as arrogance. We also often think of arrogance as all bad, and judge it harshly in ourselves and others. Today on Joyful Leader, we’re breaking down each of these emotions. We’ll t...

We use so many tools throughout our lives and work — project management, life management, mind management. Tools, systems, frameworks, and rubrics are everywhere. These things are designed to help us, to make our lives easier and more efficient. But every tool can be turned into a weapon. Today we’re talking about using your tools for you, instead of turning them into weapons against you. We’ll ta...