In a post 10 years ago (where did that decade go!?), I talked about the type of person I call a Joy Stealer. A lot of my thinking has moved on since then. The concept of the Joy Stealer is still very real – but these days I prefer to focus on the positive.
What is a Joy Stealer?
Put simply, a Joy Stealer reduces the total amount of happiness in the world in three ways:
- For every task, there’s someone who would find joy in doing it. So if you’re doing work you don’t enjoy, you’re stealing someone’s joy. Stop it!
- If you’re not doing work that brings you joy, you’re making yourself unhappy. You’re stealing your own joy. Stop It!
- If you’re not enjoying your work, Enjoyment-Performance theory says you won’t be doing it as well as someone who finds joy in it. So you’re also making your clients less happy, stealing their joy. Stop it!
I know, just saying “stop it” is a little bit like the classic Bob Newhart “Stop It!” sketch. So let’s take a look at how you can become a Joy Sharer through your work instead.
Sharing Joy
Most of us have had an experience of working with a Joy Sharer. They are those people who so clearly love what they do for a living that it just radiates from them.
I’ll bet you can think of someone like that, can’t you?
Just think about how you felt at that time. They lifted your spirits, didn’t they? You probably even looked forward to going to work with them. You’ll certainly have felt more cheerful when they were around.
Infectious Joy
Now think about how you show up when you get to do the work you love. There’s a spring in your step, an eagerness to get to work and share your genius. And once there, there’s a lightness about you as you go about your day.
In short, you’re a pleasure to be around.
And that means the people around you, whether that’s clients or colleagues, get to share in your joy. You make their day better too. Just by being who you naturally are when you’re at your best, you’ve become a Joy Sharer.
A Systemic Win
It creates what my friend Paul Baker calls a “systemic win”. All the participants are better off, and so is the overall system they are part of. As an aside Systemic Win is a concept we discuss a lot at my favourite collaboration group, the More PIE Collaborators Club (feel free to come join us, there are no membership fees, all we ask is an open mind and an open heart).
In this case, the overall system is the world of work. Can you imagine what work would be like if everyone was doing the work they love?
Share your joy in your work
The first step to sharing the joy you have in the work you love is to identify exactly what it is. What work do you loving doing and you’re brilliant at it?
The next step is to find the people who are going to value that. When you’re doing great work that you love doing, and people value it, you’re approaching that Systemic Win.
And the final step is to make it easy for your ‘tribe’ to engage you to do it. When you package up your genius in a way you can do it joyfully, and it’s how people want to buy it, everyone wins!
So please, don’t be a Joy Stealer, become a Joy Sharer!
Image: Canva
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This post is based on this week’s Joyful Genius Live on Facebook