Joyful Leader

We often think that our various roles — woman, leader, wife, mom, CEO — require different things from us. Different skill sets, lenses, and emotions. Sometimes they do require different things, but sometimes . . . we think one version of us is supportive, kind, and generous, and another has to be cutthroat, cold, or clinical. This can be subtle, but it can cause a sense of disintegration. On today...

Most leaders feel called to leadership because they want to serve. And there are two warped ideas about what service means that I have seen adopted, then weaponized against leaders themselves, the teams they work with, and the companies they work within. Those two ideas are that service is the same thing as pleasing. And that service is the same thing as sacrifice. Any trace of these two things in...

Last week, we talked about bringing purpose to our roles as leaders, and today, we’re diving into one specific aspect of purpose: significance. We’re going to break down two types of significance — the significance of each of your team members, and the significance of each role on your team. When you have a deep understanding of significance, it shows — your team feels it, even if you never mentio...

Humans love purpose. We crave it. We want a connection to meaning in our lives and in our work. Having purpose makes us go farther by lightening our steps on the journey — this is true of individuals and of teams. And leaders are purpose torchbearers. Today on the podcast, I’m sharing what it means to lead with purpose and how to bring purpose into your daily work with your team. Thanks for listen...

On Mike Birbiglia’s podcast, he regularly asks guests to share the best piece of advice they’ve received that they actually used. Every time I hear him ask, I think of today’s podcast topic: people support the things they help create. This idea, taught to me by my beloved mentor and friend Ken, is a leadership game-changer. Let’s talk about what this means, what it definitely doesn’t mean, and why...

Do you know what obstacle many people find when attempting to transform their work lives? Not wanting to be weird. It sounds funny, but it’s true. Claiming the work lives we want sometimes means doing things differently than the people around us, or out of sync with the prevailing culture of our workplaces. Today on the podcast, we’re diving into this. And — fair warning (but also, you knew this w...

Overdoing. It doesn’t matter what. Work. Netflix. Pinot. If you are taking an action over and over again that has a negative effect on your life, here’s what’s important to know: all overdoing is a pattern of avoidance + seeking. We’re avoiding something (usually a feeling), and seeking something else (see earlier parenthetical). And often, this pattern has us trying to “fix” a “problem” with the...

Most of us have experienced a “busy season” — either because our work flows in seasons, or because of project crunch time, or for some other “work is going to get wild for the next few weeks” reason. The thing about busy season (no matter what you call it in your world) is that it has a sneaky way of keeping itself alive and relevant. Meaning the more we accept it as fact and brace for it, the mor...

If you added up every incoming request, data point, question, and flashing blip that enters your brain daily, the number would be enormous. Many of us walk around carrying these things as psychic weight, feeling pressure and burden about not being able to get it all done, or respond quickly enough. Today, we’re going to break down some of the twisted socialization that’s at play here and peel back...

Hey everyone! After this week's episode, Joyful Leader will now be released every TWO weeks. See you in a couple of weeks. Thanks for listening. Hungry for more of the things we talk about on this podcast? Visit mimigordon.com to find articles, classes, and other resources. Or to schedule a free 60-minute consultation to talk about working with me as your coach. You can also find me on Instagram @...

One of the things my clients and I find when coaching about working less is a subconscious belief that if they work less, they will somehow be worse at their jobs — their brains have linked the quantity of their hours to the quality of their performance. Today on this podcast, we’re talking about why the exact opposite is true — how overwork actually causes underperformance, and why working less d...

Do you know your own truth? About your relationship with your job, for example? Or to specific family members? Do you know the truth of what you want in your life, and what you don’t? I’ve spoken to so many incredible people who feel like they’ve lost touch with what they want — they tell me they used to know, but can’t access it anymore . . . or that they feel overwhelmed when they even ask thems...

There's a trait that's common amongst good leaders: future orientation and forward momentum. These two things, when combined, create a sense of energy, agency, and self-esteem within leaders themselves and within the teams and organizations they serve. Today on the podcast, we're going to break down what these things are, why they're helpful, and how you can embody them. Thanks for listening. Hung...

There's a model that I bet you've seen many places. In relationships — whether those relationships are romantic, friendships, or employment-related — we have needs, and it’s the responsibility of other people to meet them. This leaves us waiting for other people to notice our needs, which we may or may not have expressed. It leaves us waiting for them to take action to meet them. It leaves us wait...

We all face challenges in our work and lives, and we all make mistakes and find ourselves in uncharted territories — situations that we’ve never encountered before, and so need to learn to navigate. How well we navigate these moments, how quickly we move through their challenges, and how much we learn from them often comes down to one thing: what we make them mean. I sometimes describe this as whe...

Today, we’re talking about another culture eroder: the assumption of inclusion. Assuming inclusion is often innocent — it’s the assumption that if we haven’t heard that we’re being exclusive, we must be doing alright. And while this is sometimes true, often, we’re being unintentionally exclusive in ways we can’t see. This can happen in the context of the diversity of our team, but in other ways, t...

We’ve been talking all about feedback — focused mostly on giving. Today, we’re turning around some of the tools we’ve discussed and applying them to receiving feedback. We’ll talk about how to identify the feedback you want, and how to make sure you get it. And, we’ll discuss why getting in the habit of asking for feedback is so important — for you AND your team. Thanks for listening. Hungry for m...

Good feedback is actionable. It allows the person hearing it to know exactly what to stop, start, or continue doing — immediately. And, the best feedback puts these things in the context of a larger goal or purpose. Today we’re going to talk about all of this — a rich, saturated episode of feedback approaches + tools that you can begin using immediately. Thanks for listening. Hungry for more of th...

In our second feedback episode, we’re talking all about mindset. Last week we talked about the mindset challenge — what stops us from giving feedback enough to create a habit. And this week, we’re talking about the feedback mindset to cultivate. Whether a small note or a more weighty performance conversation, there are common ways to think about the feedback we’re giving. Thanks for listening. Hun...

Your team’s results are created in your culture. » Your culture is built on trust. » Good feedback is essential for trust-building and growth. » Feedback is important. Today is the first of several episodes all about feedback: why it’s important, what gets in the way, what makes feedback good, how to build a healthy feedback culture on your team, and strategies for delivering it well. Whew. Tune i...

Today’s podcast is a story. I’m sharing a beautiful metaphor created by a client many years ago in a moment of new understanding. It’s short, sweet, and a perfect reminder for everyone. Thanks for listening. Hungry for more of the things we talk about on this podcast? Visit mimigordon.com to find articles, classes, and other resources. Or to schedule a free 60-minute consultation to talk about wor...

Look up right now and you’ll likely find some reinforcement of the message that what makes you valuable in your professional life is the number of hours you put in. Or the number of tasks you check off your list. Many of us are taught early in our careers that these are the things that determine our value. Which can create a never-ending chase toward longer hours and more tasks in order to offer g...

Today’s episode is all about a single sentence: I don’t know what I want. This thought can create a truly paralyzing cycle of confusion and stuckness. It’s vicious. And it’s never, ever true. I’ve worked with so many people who struggle with what they want: in their careers, relationships, etc. And every time this thought enters the picture, it does damage. Let’s talk about what happens when we th...

True facts: I didn’t really know how to process my emotions until I was in my 40s. Like many of my GenX cohorts, teaching and attending to emotional fluency hadn’t been part of my upbringing. So when I experienced discomfort or emotional pain, I usually resisted it, pushing it away and finding a way to distract myself from it. Today on the podcast, we’re talking about emotional resistance — the pr...

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 appreciation. Lack of appreciation—whether it’s an organization-wide mindset or a simple lack of thanking people for their work—leads to disengagement, feeling unseen, and many other things that...