Ten ways to find joy in leadership

Wouldn’t it be nice? Wouldn’t it be powerful?

1. Name and communicate the unique talents of everyone on your team – No bull, no pretending – Look real, look hard, and enjoy!

2. Find a higher purpose – beyond today’s assignment, this month’s project, the annual goals, and even the promotion.

3. Practice gratitude for the real gifts, talents, opportunities, and accomplishments you have.

4. Learn from the hard and find a victory you stubbornly determine you will carry with you – which may be very different from succeeding in your initial goal or on the assignment given you.

5. Treasure the honor it is to be trusted to lead.

6. Celebrate as a team – both just being a team which is a real gift, and when the plan comes together and you meet, pass or crush the goal that was set.

7. Learn about stages a team can grow through, and share those stages as milestones when you do grow.

8. Serve a team member every day, beyond the broader work of leading and serving everyone as a leader.

9. Practice humility and practice it willingly and honestly, not as pretense. Having everything under control is the ultimate pretense!

10. Learn something every week – we’re being practical here not to say every day, and we don’t want to pretend and make the dinky things more than they are -- that makes you a better leader. It can be about yourself, your team, your work, your market, team dynamics, the way people learn, how hard it is to change but how it can be led better or worse, and the list does go on encouragingly without limit.