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Key Takeaways Why joy sharpens decision-making, strengthens resilience and directly improves engagement.
How leaders can cultivate real joy at work without ignoring pressure, inequity or hard realities.
Joy is rarely mentioned in serious conversations about leadership, especially when employees are exhausted and disengaged. It sounds too soft, too emotional, too unprofessional. Yet organizations that invest in authentic joy — not performative holiday photo ops or office parties — unlock a secret to performance, creativity and inclusion.
What joy really means
Joy is the sense that your spirit is vibrant and alive, a feeling of brightness and lightness. When we experience joy, we know, feel and act on what matters most, confident that more good things will follow. Research shows that joy manifests in our bodies — it releases “happiness hormones,” calms the nerves, surfaces as warmth on our faces and infuses interactions with playfulness and laughter.
Joy is essential for leaders. The fresh perspective it brings helps manage stress, boost resilience, make more inclusive decisions, build trust and imagine better futures. All of these benefits contribute to a stronger strategy and execution.
The World Economic Forum identifies the “Joy Gap”—the difference between employees’ expectations for experiencing joy and their actual experience at work. Many workplaces struggle because leaders lack a clear purpose, fail to foster healthy relationships or overlook authentic appreciation for their teams.
To understand the power of joy, it helps to define what it is not. Joy does not:
Project false cheerfulness
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