What is Joyful Leadership?

What is JOYFUL LEADERSHIP?

Most people can agree on what they want from their leaders. We want them to be credible, and we want them to have a vision or at least sense of direction. They must be able to stand before us and confidently express the attractive image of the future.

The older leadership models capture parts of effective leadership, but they are largely ignoring the leadership process in the context of the psychological, ethical and philosophical self of the leader. JOYFUL LEADERS ADDRESS CHALLENGES WHILE PRACTICING SELF-MASTERY. They try to meet the needs of the challenge (situation), the team and individual with servant attitude on the one hand and awareness of the privilege to lead on the other. The emotion of joy rests on the mastery achieved and on the awareness of the privilege to lead for the benefit of all.

Therefore, we have defined joyful leadership as” THE PROCESS OF INFLUENCING OTHERS WITH JOY ABOUT WHAT AND HOW NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ACCOMPLISH SHARED GOALS FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL”.

The joyful leader is “ONE WHO BY THE VIRTUE OF HIS VISION TAKES THE RESPONSIBILITY TO INSPIRE AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE TO ACCOMPLISH GROUP GOALS THAT BENEFIT ALL”.

Joyful leaders are honored to lead and willing to use all their personal and team assets to accomplish the noble vision. The strength of their convictions when meeting challenge comes from the personal mastery they have achieved, two-way interaction with followers, servant attitude with moral virtue, and strong values as shown in figure 1.

THERE IS NO JOYFUL LEADERSHIP WITHOUT LEADERSHIP JOY TO START WITH. Joyful Leadership is not only descriptive but prescriptive as well. It functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leader’s joy has a potential to elicit similar emotion in followers. These emotions, in turn, reinforce and energize the leader for even more joyful leading. Without this emotion, the joyful leader would be only a transformational one.

Joyful Leadership DEVELOPS FROM WITHIN, and it grows through a process of self-discovery. Joyful leaders know who they are and what they want because they honor their values. These values guide them in everything they do. An answer to what do you believe or value as a person is crucial if you want to be a LEADER WITH INTEGRITY. The value of SERVING OTHERS and the virtue of BEING HUMBLE coupled with the feeling of being HONORED TO LEAD are at the CORE OF JOYFUL LEADERSHIP. They are road signs to a master joyful leader.

Therefore, joyful leaders are AUTHENTIC INTEGRATORS within the leadership process, and even in the difficult circumstances, the joy is a necessary component if one is to be such a leader.  They are psychologically appealing to followers due to their COURAGE, NOBLE VISION, PERSONAL MASTERY, AND EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOR – all presented with a strong conviction and joy. To become and stay joyful leader one must engage in everlasting personal mastery according to the saying “SIMPLE LIVING, HIGH THINKING”.

If after listening to this video about Joyful Leadership, you have a feeling you appreciate Joyful Leadership, but you did not get it all, please go back and rewind the video again and use the picture to better understand it. At the workshop, we can talk more and demonstrate how it works. It is not the importance of a problem you attack as a leader, but the joy and knowledge you demonstrate while solving it that will make you a master joyful leader. Stay joyful in the meantime!

Join our free Joyful Leadership online course today! Start here.

SOURCES:

1. Petar Turcinovic, Joyful Leadership Manual

What is Joyful Leadership?

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