{"id":40959,"date":"2025-03-03T19:41:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T03:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40959"},"modified":"2025-03-03T19:41:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T03:41:06","slug":"fuel-up-with-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/fuel-up-with-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel up with Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This may be stating the obvious but throughout our readings over the last couple of semesters, many books have confirmed that leadership is more about the character of the leader rather than the skills that person might have. Early on, reading Leading out of Who You Are, \u00a0The Undefended Leader<\/em>, author Simon Walker, D Prof used the example of Jesus\u2019 death on the cross as something that might appear as weakness but in fact was the most powerful act and example in history. This spoke to me. Jesus the leader we follow, try to emulate, and adore led from a stance that did not scream I am a leader while it was happening[1]<\/a>. In Failure of Nerve, author Edwin Friedman, shared the value of a leader who by knowing oneself does not get caught up in the anxious emotional processes that consume many people and organizations. Being non-anxious is an important part of the leader\u2019s being[2]<\/a>. As I am working on my NPO the areas that keeps rising to the top are those that speak to the personhood of the leader rather than the skill of the person. This week, Rare Leadership, 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead again confirms that the skills that job applicants dutifully insert on resumes and job applications are not the items that ultimately make them successful. In Rare Leadership, authors Marcus Warner, D Min., and Jim Wilder, PhD. discuss \u00a0four habits if mastered can help good leaders transition into great ones. These Rare Habits of exceptional leaders are:<\/p>\n

R: Remain Relational<\/strong> \u2013 Developing deep relationships and belonging<\/p>\n

A: Act like yourself<\/strong> \u2013 The right side of our brains, is the fast track, creates motivation from the mental interaction when we are in a relationship with someone or group and have a sense of belonging. We seek our Identity to be connected to the identity of the group[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

R: Return to Joy<\/strong> \u2013 Being glad to be together, but more on this later.<\/p>\n

E: Endure Hardships Well<\/strong> \u2013 Using hard times to bring us together [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

The four habits are interconnected sometimes playing each role intentionally, or one prominent role over another depending on circumstances. For example, being relational is about belonging which brings joy to the person.<\/p>\n

In the rest of this post, I want to focus on the third Habit, Return to Joy. To do this I start with accountability. Most leadership training and discipleship groups have some form of accountability in them; making sure there are checks to confirm what the person says they are doing, actually happens. The concept is that quantifying the results will motivate someone to work harder to succeed. Yet, getting it to work in real time is actually difficult. One of the reasons for this is that the model for accountability is based on fear. Only with success does someone find acceptance within their relational group[5]<\/a>. However, Warner and Wilder believe that both fear and joy can influence individuals and groups. Yet. joy can make the greatest return and difference. The authors correlate joy to a powerful fuel for leadership.<\/p>\n

Making Joy a habit by reflecting on things that bring us joy three times a day for five minutes each time can actually hardwire the effects of joy into the right side of our brains, the fast-track brain system. The brain then creates a mental map of valued relationships and experiences that teach us about our mental identity and can serve in all kinds of situations. In a quick instant, we can choose how to respond rather than react similarly to what is coming toward us[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I first considered the concept of joy several years ago when I attended a Youth Ministry Forum where the Rev. Dr. Angela Gorrell was the keynote speaker. She described a time when she was teaching at Yale University on the topic of JOY. What was sadly uncanny was that the joy in her personal life took a dive with a series of three unexpected deaths of close family members within four weeks of each other. Gorrell chronicled the time, wondering how she could teach about joy when she could hardly get out of bed. In her book The Gravity Of Joy[7]<\/a>, she shared her personal experience of navigating the depths of despair that followed and then finding joy in the maximum-security prison where she volunteered[8]<\/a>. Finding joy did not erase her sadness but allowed her to honor the heartbreak without sacrificing her inner joy.<\/p>\n

I have often thought that being in the nonprofit sector caused my leadership to value helping my employees grow to the next level of their profession. I now think that maybe that is not the case. Skills and knowledge are important. Yet the habits that Rare Leadership shared, plus the non-anxious and undefended leaders that Friedman and Walker, and others highlighted that all become part of the human puzzle that make up the leaders.<\/p>\n

This week, I am looking forward to introducing joy to my senior staff at our one-day retreat. These dedicated professionals work hard and solve problems daily, with what appears to be seamless effort. Yet I know they can get worn out as well. Finding five minutes several times a day to think about where they see joy in their lives might be one of the nicest gifts I can share with them. It can help them to either start to rewire their brains or strengthen the wiring that already recognizes joy in their lives\u00a0 to make it accessible to them in their work and overall life.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Simon P. Walker, Leading out of Who You Are (Carlisle, UK: Piquant Editions Ltd, 2007), 5.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve (New York: Church Publishing, 2017), 15.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Marcus Warner, and Jim Wilder, Rare Leadership, 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2016), 48.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Warner and Wilder, 46.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Warner and Wilder, 45.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Warner and Wilder, 48.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Angela Gorrell, The Gravity of Joy (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2021).<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Angela Gorrell, Plenary Speaker, Flagler College, Youth Ministry Forum, February 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This may be stating the obvious but throughout our readings over the last couple of semesters, many books have confirmed that leadership is more about the character of the leader rather than the skills that person might have. Early on, reading Leading out of Who You Are, \u00a0The Undefended Leader, author Simon Walker, D Prof […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2967,2594,2595],"class_list":["post-40959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03","tag-warner","tag-wilder","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40960,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40959\/revisions\/40960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}