Finding Happiness in Leadership
Passion to change things – to make a difference – eats away at you. Show me a leader who’s always content and I’ll show you a lousy leader.
Finding happiness as a leader means learning to navigate tensions between:
- Dissatisfaction and satisfaction.
- Discontentment and contentment.
- Unhappiness and happiness.
Early in my career dissatisfaction and discontent dominated my personal landscape. I was constantly unhappy with progress, my performance, and the path we were on.
Finding your leadership happiness:
First, Kouzes and Posner said a mouthful when they said, “Leaders inspire shared vision.” Leadership happiness depends on “shared” vision. Without that, you’re sad and alone. The more people who share the vision the happier leaders become.
Second, know their way works too. People seldom do things the way you would. They’re too slow, too fast, too cautious, too detailed. The real question is, will their way get you there?
Leaders who engage others release rather than control.
Third, know your performance is about improving theirs. I thought too little about the performance of others when I was younger. Leadership happiness is found when others step up and step in. Spend your time improving the team.
Helping others find happiness:
Call for commit to projects, mission, and vision. Bystanders and fence-sitters grow unhappy and uncomfortable. Align their values with organizational values and invite them to go all in.
Those who aren’t committed find fault; those who are find a way. Think about relationships that fall apart. Once commitment fails, relationships go dark.
You have a bias to validate your decisions. Once someone commits to something, they naturally find ways to validate the wisdom of their decision. Commitment helps organizational followers find happiness in their organization.
Want to get better at helping others find happiness? Read, “The Secret to creating happiness.”
How have you found happiness in your leadership?
Agreed – this was great.
Sent from my iPhone
Thanks Kara.
Wow Dan, got the pistons firing in my head today. Good show!!!!
Well, two thoughts gurgled to the brim of my conscious awareness.
One, true happiness lies not in what one has, but what one can do without.
Second, no matter what, a leader is a person who at least one thing. Without this one thing what they know or don’t. What they got or don’t got, don’t matter. Degrees, knowledge, supposed power, titles…….none of that matters.
Only one thing qualifies a person as a Leader, at least one follower……..
SP back to producing oxy
Thanks Scott. I thought you might add that happiness is about who we are not what we do.
Hey Dan, my friend, are you actually encouraging me to bloviate my strongly held passionate beliefs MORE!!! Lol
I believe in what you said, who we are, if we are in sincere, authentically in touch with that, how could we possibly not be happy?
My present understanding, I am touching is, I am a perfect eachness in the allness of God.
Unique, one of a kind but not an ego thing…..so are each of Gods kids. One of a kind 1000% necessary to make up the wholeness of the Big Guys grand plan.
Ain’t generic views just wonderful? Don’t leave or disqualify any of Gods kids like some other thought systems.
God don’t exclude ANY of his kids. Just some thought systems do or try to convince people it could be so. Ridiculous thought systems!!! Hehe
SP back to attempting to not over overbloaviate and create more oxy!!!!!!
Hey Dan, you’re reading my personal diary huh?
I needed this reminder as to why I was so grumpy presently, and how I must get out of it. We do find ways to validate our decisions absolutely, that’s why a lot of us have never been wrong. Grumpy, visionary, blindsided, stupid, overjoyed, myopic, flat, racing, stuck – all in a days work.
Personally I always need a release – for me it’s getting back to nature – running, mountain biking, hiking, skiing – to remind myself that everything turns out pretty amazing in the end – and it all got that way without me!
Have a great day, Richard
Good morning Dan; We were put on this earth to help others, this is clearly stated in the Holy Bible. ‘True’ Leadership and our faith share this principle. Thank God we are not all the same. Happiness, real honest happiness humbles those who meet others where they are and find ways to inspire them toward greatness. I believe the heart is at the center of our happiness. It takes skills and talents to accomplish great things. Success and failure should not be judged alone due to wheather we surpased our goals or fell short. But wheather we did our best to equip our fellow man to be his best. When we do this, we’ve done our best. As Phil Robertson would say, “Happy, Happy, Happy”! Happines is a ‘Heart’ issue… Cheers Dan
Thank you.
Hi Dan, I’ve been reading your blogs on leadership and I would say that this was a great blog on finding happiness and it means a lot. Thank you!
Reblogged this on THE STRATEGIC LEARNER and commented:
Passion … can’t be taught, can’t be inherited, can’t be faked (for very long) … but it is essential for effective leadership. Rockwell tells us why.
Dan, it’s great seeing you cover what many might consider the “soft issues” of leadership, like happiness. Yet, savvy people know kindness and goodness and happiness are the very qualities that lead to fulfillment and peak performance.
As a young guy, I once heard a patient saying goodbye and told an old doc, “Take care doc.” The old doc replied, “I will take care of ME for YOU…if you will take care of YOU for me.”
I wonder if the same kind of “happy back and forth” applies in leadership outside of medicine?
so true!
Great article. Simple but very true concepts and ones that truely work!
Reblogged this on Movers, Shakers, Leadership Makers.