Leading with Joy

Practices for Uncertain Times

Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali
©2022 by Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali
Adapted by permission of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-523-00282-5
Estimated reading time of summary: 6 minutes

Key Takeaways
• Leadership that’s rooted in joy begins with purpose and vision. Resolve to see and treat other peo-
ple as if they are your family.
• It’s easy to become frustrated with the slow pace of change. Keep moving in the direction of growth.
• Our attention wanders with the speed of clickbait. Be discerning with your time and attention. Fol-
low people who speak the truth and whose guidance you trust.
• It’s easy to write a vision statement. However, to create a culture of joy and goodwill, you must first
do the internal work required to heal yourself.

Overview
As we watch climate catastrophes unfold, democracies fail, and institutions crumble, one thing is
clear—humanity is standing at a precipice. To succeed in these turbulent times, leadership must be
bold, creative, and rooted in joy and compassion. In Leading with Joy, leadership experts Akaya Wind-
wood and Rajasvini Bhansali promote a courageous approach to leadership. You’ll learn how to reclaim
your purpose, embrace joy, and create well-being.

Purpose and Vision

Leadership grounded in joy starts with purpose and vision. Without these qualities, leadership becomes
transactional. To help discover your purpose:

• Remember joyful moments. Think about the moments in your life where you felt a deep sense of joy
or satisfaction. What connects these moments? What story can you tell about them? Describe that
story in a sentence—for example, “My purpose is to spread hope.”
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Leading with Joy Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali

• Imagine your descendants. Describe the future you want for an imaginary future descendant, includ-
ing their home, school, community, and natural surroundings. If you dedicated your life in service to
them, how would it impact your current leadership?
The following tips can guide you to lead with purpose and vision:

• Eliminate energy drains. You know that an idea, activity, or project aligns with your purpose when it
fills you with excitement. What depletes your time and energy?
• Find stillness. In times of turbulence, strive to find stillness. Otherwise, you’ll react with your emo-
tions and create more chaos.

Humility, Experimentation, and Growth

You’re a small part of a vast human family, and together we can create miracles. What’s your unique con-
tribution to the world? To learn more about your gifts and challenges, try the following exercise:

• List your greatest strengths as a leader and your greatest challenges. Try to be objective.
• Choose one thing from each list. Honor your accomplishments in this area and consider how you
want to grow.
• Plan one step in each area that you can take in the next week to strengthen your leadership.

Preserving and Honoring Individual and Collective Dignity

If you honor the dignity of the people you lead, your impact will be greater and last longer. The follow-
ing tips can help you on your journey:

• Don’t assign blame. It’s easy to assign blame when you view the world as the “good guys” versus the
“bad guys.” Imagine a conversation with someone whom you think of as a bad guy. What would it
take for you to engage them with an open heart? How would this shift the way you lead?
• See the best in people. Open doors for new talent and be determined to see the best in people—even
when they disappoint you. Who believed in you when you doubted yourself? How do you open
doors for others?
• Honor every individual. Most acts of leadership go unnoticed. For the next month, greet people you
usually ignore. You may have conversations that surprise you.

Healing, Forgiveness, and Redemption

Forgiveness is a key step on the path to joy. When you hold onto old wounds, it drains your resources
and can cause you to harm the people you lead. To let go of your wounds, you must:

• Forgive others. Forgiveness allows you to redirect your energy toward the people and things that
are most important. Who do you need to forgive? Plan one small step you can take to move toward
forgiveness.
• Ask for forgiveness. Every leader makes mistakes. Is there someone whose forgiveness you should
seek? What small step can you take to make things right?
Traditional organizational training teaches leaders to give orders. But the most effective leaders do
whatever needs to be done. This is even more important during times of change. To move people for-
ward, model the behavior you expect to see. Ask yourself the following questions:

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Leading with Joy Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali

• Successful leaders walk into every room like they own it and remain humble in their hearts. How do
you remain humble?
• How do you avoid rolling up your sleeves and doing the work?

Kindness, Trust, and Compassion

With the tension in today’s workplaces, it takes courage to choose kindness, compassion, and trust.
When you choose kindness, it creates the emotional environment necessary for people to feel safe, con-
nected, and joyful. No one is an island. Natural ecosystems teach us that it’s the interactions between
species and the elements that allow living things to thrive. This is an important lesson for all leaders,
especially those working to advance social justice. To embody an ecosystem approach in your work,
build power in communities. Who is in your ecosystem?

There’s a difference between being nice and being kind. Most children are taught to be nice—to make
other people comfortable and go along even when something feels off. Kindness recognizes that we’re
kin even when we disagree. How would your leadership change if you were kind instead of nice? Spend
the next two weeks being kind. If you slip into niceness, pause, take a deep breath, and remember that
you’re speaking to a relative.

Grief, Challenge, and Disappointment

The following tips can help you respond to challenges with kindness and compassion:

• Acknowledge your mistakes. Mistakes are an integral part of a joyous path. You’re learning and grow-
ing; therefore, you’ll sometimes make mistakes. As a leader, it’s important to acknowledge your
mistakes and process the resulting grief and disappointment. That’s how you become wiser.
• Ask for support. Leadership can be daunting. When you’re having a difficult time, ask for support
from other leaders—and support them when they need it.
• Center yourself. You can’t control your emotions, but you can control how you respond to them.
When you become triggered, instead of lashing out or making a plan, stop and concentrate on your
breathing until you feel centered. Then ask yourself, “What are my options? What’s best for every-
one?” Interrupting ingrained habits is difficult, but it’s essential if you want to be an effective and
trustworthy leader.

Keeping the Circle Whole and Healthy

Our cultural, economic, political, and religious institutions teach people to see themselves as masters
of the universe. Our power to destroy ecosystems seemingly has no limit. But remember, you are one
person among billions. No one person matters more than any other person. Each individual is valuable,
and your well-being depends on the health of others and on the environment.

Instead of focusing on exclusivity or competitive advantage, an ecosystem approach to leadership

means creating relationships and working together. How would your leadership change if you led with
an awareness of the interconnection of life? During the next few days, try the following exercise:

• Find a beach, forest, field, or park. Sit on a blanket and take your shoes off.
• Close your eyes and notice what you hear and smell. What does it feel like to sit quietly on the earth?
Sit long enough and you’ll notice movement. What’s causing it?

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Leading with Joy Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali

• You’re a small part of the circle of life. How would your leadership shift if you brought this awareness
into work every day? Reconnect with this awareness at least once each day for the next month.

Flexibility, Creativity, and Adaptability

Transformation requires radical imagination and immense courage. New ideas and new paths are scary,
but they offer the opportunity to be your most creative self—and what’s more joyous than that? The
following tips can help you unleash your creativity:

• Practice curiosity. Underneath many conflicts is a longing for trust. In times of conflict, approach
people with curiosity.
• Express yourself. Transform your greatest challenges into art by trying new forms of expression, such
as dance, spoken word, performance, and painting.
• Find steadiness. In times of constant change, leaders must become comfortable with ambiguity.
When traditional structures and systems crumble, find things you can depend on, like your partner,
community, or natural environment.
• Practice letting go. At a time that’s meaningful to you, such as the summer and winter solstices, ex-
amine your ideas, habits, routines, relationships, and possessions to see what you no longer need.
By regularly letting go, you can leave the past behind and move forward unburdened.

Taking Risks and Staying Steady

Transformations require leaps of faith. While it’s important to avoid being reckless, you don’t want to
be so cautious that you stagnate. What’s a risk you want to take that could strengthen your leadership?
What support would you need in order to take it?

Trustworthy leaders are consistent: They display love and respect through their actions and by doing
what they say they’ll do. Trustworthy leaders are also congruent: There’s little to no gap between their
self-professed beliefs and how they move through the world. Do you offer consistency to your col-
leagues, family, and friends? Are there situations in which you want to be more congruent?

Almost everything in an organization is ritual. What starts as an innovation eventually becomes a tradi-
tion. Eliminating unnecessary habits, patterns, and obligations can create space for rest, play, and joy.
To begin, make a comprehensive list of the things you do regularly for your work, home, family, and
hobbies. What are you doing simply out of habit? Are there any habitual patterns you could change or
eliminate?

Learning to Care for Ourselves as We Care for Our Communities

There’s a burnout crisis in the United States. People are leaving the workforce because of exhaustion and
overwork. The following tips can help you prevent burnout:

• Recognize your mortality. When you realize you won’t be alive forever, you understand that you can’t
control everything. Focus on where you can make a difference.
• Have difficult conversations. Direct, clear feedback is necessary and often undervalued; it allows peo-
ple to do their best work. Enter a conversation with genuine compassion, and trust that people want
to grow. Then explain exactly what you need.

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Leading with Joy Akaya Windwood and Rajasvini Bhansali

• Create balance. To do your best work over the long term, it’s essential to stay healthy, say “no” when
you have other priorities, and choose to be calm rather than frenzied. What are your cues that you
need rest?
• Indulge. Find time to unwind with a guilty pleasure, and consider taking the afternoon off once in a
while.
• Take vacations. You’re more productive when you get enough rest and relaxation. Model this for
your team by scheduling vacations and not working over the weekend.

Conclusion: It’s Worth It

The world needs leadership centered in joy and compassion. As you continue on your leadership jour-
ney, remember to do the work it takes to heal, remain authentic, and honor other leaders. You’re part of
a larger whole, so seek out the people who also desire a joyful and sustainable way of life.

About the Authors

Akaya Windwood advises, trains, and consults on how change happens individually, organizationally,
and societally. She’s on the faculty of the RSF Social Finance Just Economy Institute and is the founder of
the New Universal, which centers human wisdom in the wisdom of brown women.

Rajasvini Bhansali is the executive director of Solidaire Network, a community of donor organizers
mobilizing critical resources to the front lines of social justice. She has a wide-ranging career devoted to
racial, economic, and climate justice.

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