Joy!—A Vital Tool And Signal For Leaders
Joy is not only a valuable leadership tool for galvanizing people, but also a reliable signal of resonating with conditions.
By Ginny Whitelaw
Originally published on Forbes.com on September 1st, 2024
Image by Michal Collection on Canva.
If you’ve been following Democratic politics in the U.S. recently, you know that joy has taken center stage. “Thank you for bringing the joy back!” the ebullient vice-presidential candidate, Tim Walz shouts out to his presidential running mate, Kamala Harris. Described as a “joyful warrior,” Harris’s infectious smile, fierce determination and can-do positivity has won the hearts and uplifted the spirits of Democrats coast to coast. We see in her example that joy can be an important tool for leaders as a galvanizing force. What may be less obvious but equally true is that joy is also a reliable signal to leaders of when they’re on the right track.
How is it that joy does its work as both a leadership tool and important signal?
As a tool, joy is a contagious force. We are social beings, equipped with a social-emotional nervous system that resonates between people. Many studies have shown this resonance is a biological basis for empathy: we replicate in our body a model of what we sense someone is feeling and can thus feel it too. Smiles are infectious, for example, as our mirror neurons light up to replicate the same muscular pattern on our face, which leads to the same positive emotion.
Decades of positive psychology research into the role of joy and emotional intelligence in leadership have shown that people are more inclined to follow a leader who is positive and joyful. Joyful leaders are more likely to see opportunities, not just problems. They’re more likely to take risks and more able to pick themselves up after disappointment. Energetically, they’re able to extend their positive energy toward others and the projects they want to advance, rather than placing blame or being stuck as victims of circumstance. All of these effects get amplified through interpersonal resonance such that those around a positive leader likewise manifest more positive, can-do energy, feel more capable and build more positive relationships with one another.
How does this compare with leaders who control largely through fear and intimidation? According to Liz Wiseman’s research, people will give compliant levels of effort to an intimidating leader but put forth at least twice as much discretionary effort in the presence of a positive, empowering leader.
In all of these ways, joy functions as a potent leadership tool for galvanizing can-do energy and getting stuff done. That said, it is not the sort of tool one can simply manufacture, as joy cannot be faked. Granted, some people are better than others at “putting on a happy face” and some are better than others at reading when someone’s happy face is nothing more than that. But real joy has a distinct energetic signature—some associate a particular energetic frequency with it. It has a distinct effect in the body, often described as a sense of lightness, bubbliness, flowing energy, or simply flow. As such it can serve as a useful signal to leaders of when they’re matching or flowing with the energy of what’s going on around them as opposed to being stuck or resistive.
As an example of this feeling, think back to a swing set on a playground of your youth. When you were very young, perhaps someone pushed you to get you going or keep you swinging. But feel into that moment when you first learned how you could propel the swing yourself by matching your pumping to the rhythm of the swing and—wee!—the effect was exhilarating, joyful. Or think back to when you were first learning to ride a bicycle. Perhaps when the training wheels first came off, you had someone who helped stabilize you. But feel into that moment when, after confusion, struggle and perhaps a few falls, you learned to stabilize yourself and coordinate your pedaling. Can you recall the burst of joy?
And so it is that joy springs forth once we “get it,” often on the other side of some struggle. It certainly makes sense from an evolutionary perspective that our nervous system would register a strong “thumbs up” when we start to get things right. Joy also arises when we’re “in the groove,” catching a wave, or dancing to the beat of a song. Nikki Jackman, for example, puts the connection between joy and dance to good use in hosting the Global Joy Dance as part of an uplift program for people’s lives.
In examples like a swing set or the beat of music, it’s relatively easy to pick up and match the rhythm of what’s going on. But this principle of joy springing forth when we match and accord the conditions we face has deep roots in Taoism where it’s spoken of as according the myriad changes of life or being in harmony with the Way. Unfortunately, for our ego-self, that’s easier said than done. The myriad changes of life don’t always match what we would order up—e.g., people and things we love end too soon, while fearsome difficulties and troubles visit too often and last too long. We cannot be in harmony with the Way when we’re resisting the way life is happening. In Zen Leadership, we call this resistance “coping mode” and truly we can’t lead from this state, because we’re stuck to a self having a problem. We’re not going or flowing anywhere.
At the hinge point between coping mode and projecting our energy in productive ways is the crucial state of acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean we like what’s going on, but it does mean we take it as it is, welcome it into our guest house, as Rumi would say. Once our body relaxes into acceptance, energy can start moving again. Catching the flow of things, we can start applying our gifts and, there it is, joy comes back. In A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle summed this up with the sage guidance: “If you’re doing something not in a state of acceptance, joy or enthusiasm, just stop.” When we try to push things grudgingly, we just make a mess of them.
How wonderful and convenient that we’re equipped with an emotional readout of when we’re in the flow of things and that the very same signal also functions as a galvanizing tool for bringing others along. One might even say it’s how the Way functions through us.
Ginny Whitelaw is the Founder and CEO of the Institute for Zen Leadership.
