The Pleasure of God – Overcome Misery and Feel Joy
Miserable leaders have miserable teams.
“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” 1924 Olympic Gold Medalist in the 400m and missionary to China, Eric Liddell.
Overcome misery and fuel joy. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls “the pleasure of God” Flow. We often call it, “being in the zone.”
What feels good?
Energy is fueled by pleasure.
Misery:
Enjoy leading or quarantine yourself. (Your team already wishes you would go away. Sadly, they might be better off if you did.)
Someone might object, “You can’t enjoy everything.” The implied conclusion of this statement is don’t emphasize pleasure because you can’t enjoy everything.
Any leader who prefers misery to pleasure should go follow their misery and free us from the burden of their presence.
Work is painful when leaders are joyless.
What gives you energy? What energizes others? Do more of that.
More pleasure please:
#1. Reflect on your impact:
Rate the energy level of people before and after spending an hour with you. Are they energized or drained?
Negative leaders drag you down more than positive leaders lift you up. (The Progress Principle)
The only thing more challenging than facing big problems is facing them with leaders that make you miserable.
#2. Stop killing joy:
Joy is energy. Why kill it?
Stop turning good news into bad because you want people to stay vigilant and work hard. Celebrate something!
Catastrophizing drains teams. Stop turning mole hills into mountains.
The ability to turn mole hills into mountains is not an admirable leadership talent.
Neglected question:
One of the most neglected questions in leadership is, “What am I doing when I feel God’s pleasure?” If you don’t believe in God, ask yourself, “What am I doing when energy goes up and I lose track of time?”
Joy points the way.
How might leaders overcome misery and find joy?
How might leaders fuel joy in others?
Bonus material:
Positive Leadership: 30 Must Have Traits and Skills (Positive Psychology)
The Power of Positive Leadership (John Gordon)
I think one of the best things a leader can do is what you said in looking at your team members before and after you meet with them. Are they more energized or drained? When having 1 on – talks with them, ask questions and figure out what brings them joy/energy. How can they incorporate that more and even possibly how could they incorporate that more into their work life?
Great post, Dan!
Thanks Josh. The most useful tool I have seen for helping others develop their talent is monitoring their energy. The question is, what’s happening when energy goes up? Do more of that!! … Plus how does positive energy help us clarify purpose.
How might leaders overcome misery and find joy? Sometimes we need to step aside as you say and let others drive the Train, may help allow a new perceptive to change how we see things, although with a group sometimes easier said than done.
How might leaders fuel joy in others? Finding joy in oneself is optional what works for one may not work for others, we can at least share and perhaps others will follow. Encouragement comes to mind so if we have a proven path by all means share the option, they can follow or create their own. Often times a simple reward goes a long way perhaps reach out with Coffee and a doughnut, Pizza and sodas, etc.
Thanks Tim. The thing that came to mind while reading your comment is the power of noticing. People feel like they matter when they feel noticed.
This is awesome and exactly what I needed this morning! I have a job that I dearly love and find deep and abiding joy doing (I work with old maps) and I have a leader that promotes passion for the job. It make a BIG difference!!!
Thanks Amy. Your love of maps is wonderful. I had to smile when I read that. Isn’t it great that different people find joy in different ways?
Thank you for not being scared to talk about God in your articles. This MADE my day and did boost my joy, which comes from Him!
Thanks Kerri. No fear. The quote is what it is. All I did was share it. 🙂
It is hard to keep giving what you don’t receive. Joy comes from within. Sometimes, joy is encouraged from without. Sometimes a kind word or deed can lift all boats and put some wind in the sails.
Thanks Duane. It’s true. You can’t force joy on anyone. Liddell said the strength comes from within. We, as you indicate, can lift boats with a good word. But you can’t force it.
GREAT post! “Any leader who prefers misery to pleasure should go follow their misery and free us from the burden of their presence.” – I laughed out loud reading this, having experienced leaders like this – so appreciate your candor. And, I second Kerri Myers’ comment!!
Thanks Stephanie. I’m so glad you appreciate the humor. It makes me laugh too. 🙂
Today’s read spoke to me. Thanks!!
Thanks Jen. It’s a pleasure to be of service. Best wishes.
Another great posting. Thank you Dan! I was reminded of a song I heard when I was in elementary school: “Joy is like the rain…sometimes silver, sometimes gray, always sun not far away. Joy is like the rain.” On this rainy day in Brooklyn, I’m feeling pretty joyful.
Thanks Mary. What a sunny comment! Best wishes.
“What am I doing when I feel God’s pleasure?” If you don’t believe in God, ask yourself, “What am I doing when energy goes up and I lose track of time?” As a Christian I know and believe who walks with me each day. That alone sets up my attitude and my expectations for everything that I do. Am I perfect no, but I try with an positive attitude.
Thanks for jumping in today, Roger. I wish you well on the journey.
The juxtaposition of Pleasure and Joy caught my attention. It is easy for me (and most of the marketing in our world promotes!) to mistake Pleasure for Joy. Joy is a much deeper emotion that can be found in any circumstance while Pleasure is much more fleeting. Live in Joy and it will influence others far more than trying to manufacture Pleasure. Tough to do but entirely worth it.
Thanks for adding your thoughts. I grappled with the happenstance of doing things that increase our energy and the deep down joy of fulfilling our purpose. The only thing I could come up with was to use the terms interchangeably because I see both at work. Any time DOING is involved then there is some aspect of “manufacture.”
In any case, your observation is appreciated. Even though, I personally find it difficult to make a clean cut between the idea of pleasure and joy. After all it is pleasurable to feel joy.
God has a growth mind-set. He wants us to succeed, be grateful, celebrate small and big wins, practice forgiveness, serve others, and live our values.
If we do those things we will fuel joy in ourselves and others.
Thanks Paul. I suppose if we treat others with these things in mind, it would be hard to miss joy. Although, forgiveness can be a bit difficult, at least in the short run.
A really inspiring post, and the links were great too – I followed the Positive Psychology link, which was of good quality and depth. Thank you, Dan.
So glad you found the links useful. Thanks, Flowering. The Pos. Psy. folks do great work. If you haven’t read any of Martin Seligman’s books, they are, in my opinion worth it.
This is a great post! I just sat for about ten minutes considering how my team feels an hour after our meeting and realized- I don’t celebrate the wins enough, tend to focus on the opportunities more than the positives and have never considered the job of ‘workflow’ being that of God’s impact of me.
This is really insightful. I plan to lead a few of my staff meetings this week with a much different goal and mentality toward the entire thing. I look forward to see how it goes keeping these points in mind!
Specific to the reflection, I like to reach-out to one of the leaders on my team after a meeting to get their feedback on how the meeting went, the conversation, and decisions made. Often times, I do this to hear someone 1:1 that didn’t speak-up when I knew they had something they wanted to share or if I got a sense of frustration from the individual. The 2 way feedback tends to help me address issues with how the meeting went or my tone/response to someone on the team.
As one of my Co-workers around 1984 once remarked when I was laughing while on the phone: “put that down, you are laughing, so it’s impossible that this is a work-call”. Good joke.
Thanks Hans… Good story. Love it.