Joyosity

I had a coworker who was like sandpaper for me. Every time my slack would ding with their name, I would just feel a pang of “ugh”. Have you ever felt that? Truthfully, if you work with people long enough, someone will be this for you…and this might be inevitable at some point in any relationship.

I decided to start with donuts. I knew she obsessed over donuts, and I thought maybe some time outside of work talk would do us some good. So I asked her to go for donuts. After that donut shop meeting, her messages did not send me into groan mode. This is the magic of connection!

Connection is the glue of healthy leadership.

Start with understanding your personality and values to connect with others. Then move to understanding others. Without connection, we start to feel untethered from the goals of an organization and the team.

Every relationship doesn’t have to include donut shop meetings. But as a leader, you MUST connect with people for your work and team to be effective. In this episode I’m sharing three tips to help you work torward connection. With so much collective anxiety around this election time in the U.S., you may be noticing your team struggling with the connection piece right now. I invite you to sit down and have real conversations.

Show your authentic self and be genuinely curious about your team members. You can transform your leadership style and your team this way. It's time to make every workplace a more joy-filled space, starting now!

Here’s what we talked about:

08:18 Building trust requires communication and connection together

10:14 Disconnection reduces productivity

14:13 Solid connections require self-understanding and presence

19:15 How to be vulnerable and authentic as a leader

25:50 Explore Joyosity for joyful, productive workplace connections

27:23 How to use curiosity to become a better leader

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step:

Joyosity Explorer Map http://jennwhitmer.com/joyosity-explorer  will guide you to understanding the deeper purpose and story you tell yourself about your work. Joy is linked to purpose and productivity increases by 20% or more when you directly link your purpose to your work.

Ready to Dive In:

1:1 Joyosity Leadership Intensive http://jennwhitmer.com/intensive Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn 1:1 when it fits your schedule. Five spots available in November and December 2024.

Chaos. October brought more than its fair share! So how do you lead in the midst of it all? The short answer? Values. They operate as a North star for your behavior and decisions.

Shelby lives in a small mountain community and saw chaos and values play out right in front of her eyes all month in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. We spoke about how values impacted so many decisions in her own response and in her community at a larger scale. We spoke about leaders owning up to mistakes, and how values don’t have to feel like a backpack of heavy rocks but a guiding force in times of uncertainty.

Ken’s conversations about values being lenses you see the world through was a helpful reminder through it all. We touched on how knowing other people’s values can help you lead more effectively and understand behavior that might be leaving you thinking “well I would never do it that way”.

When there are blank question marks in the middle of hard times leaning in with curiosity and being intentional about filling those spaces is key to living and leading with confidence.

This month really smacked us with reminders that we can’t control the weather, or the outcome of an election, or a boss you may not align with. What we can do is control ourselves.

Our values influence our behavior and the way we see the world, and they are foundational to self-leadership. If you know you need to define your values take a listen and let us know what you think!

Here’s what we talked about:

04:37 How abandoning your values can lead to conflict

08:55 Tips for onboarding with a values first mindset

12:28 Using your values to lead in chaos

16:05 How values showed up in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene

21:14 How tragedy amplifies your values

24:48 Recognizing the signs of burnout in yourself and your team

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step:

Values Identifier Guide Put those values down on paper so you can align your actions to living as your best self which reduces decision fatigue and improves decision quality.

Ready to Make a Plan:

Joyosity Jumpstart

If you’re ready to stop leading from survival mode and lead with connection and joy, the Joyosity™ Jumpstart Session is for you. Clarify what you want, where you are, and what’s getting in the way so you can make a real plan.

Starting the Journey:

Enneagram Navigator

Walk through the process to identify your Enneagram type — accurately! But then also know what does that mean in your every day life.

Ready to Dive In:

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat

Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.

Being seen by someone else is one of the best feelings in the world.

A dear friend gave me a necklace of three rows of clustered, bright wooden discs in every imaginable color. A necklace that she would never wear. But because she's seen my bubbly self, she knew jewelry in riotous color would not only be worn frequently, but treasured.

In this week's episode, Ken Black and I finish our conversation about the magic of values. We unpacked how knowing our core values can extend our leadership in surprising ways. Not only leading ourselves, but knowing the values of individuals on the team can people be accountable to the type of person they want to be. We problem-solve differently when we understand each other and can see each other clearly. This clarity not only helps prevent team conflicts but also aligns everyone towards a shared vision.

Integrating your values into all areas of your life brings joy at work and at home. When you show up as your true self, it creates a more joyful workplace and life. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting out in your career, this chat offers practical steps to figuring out what you value and how to navigate your career in a way that will feel right to you — based on your own values! You already have them. You just need to name them.

Here’s what we talked about:

03:39 Tips for identifying team values and reducing conflict

06:59 Choosing specific values versus generic ones

09:55 Practical steps to help your team feel seen and heard

17:11 How to use your personal values at work and home

20:54 Tips to know when it's time to leave a job

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step:

Values Identifier Guide will lead you to putting those values down on paper so you can align your actions to living as your best self which reduces decision fatigue and improves decision quality.

Ready to Dive In:

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat

Registration closes 10/25/24. Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.

My son’s part-time job as a boy was running into walls. The phrase “face the way you’re walking” constantly came out of my mouth. One because I was tired of dirty walls, but mostly for his success.

Ken shared the same idea for leadership success. Focus on where you want to go and so difficulties and disruptions don’t sway you from the goal. Choosing how you want to shoe up in the world or the lens through which you choose to see the world, Understand Seeing the world will revolutionize your leadership success, your organization’s culture, and, actually, every part of your life. Ken and I dive into how adopting a values-driven approach can transform not only how you lead, but how you show up everywhere.

Ken offers a refreshing take on values, describing them as dynamic lenses rather than fixed rules. These lenses shape how you see and interact with the world, helping you lead with clarity, consistency, and purpose. When you know your values—and live them out—challenges become opportunities, and leadership becomes a lot more joyful. When your team knows what you stand for and sees you live it daily, trust naturally follows.

Ken's stories and strategies provide actionable steps to ensure your values guide you, making your leadership more authentic and impactful. Whether you're rethinking your organizational culture or striving to become a more transparent leader, this conversation is a goldmine of insights to help you bring more joy to your culture at work.

Here’s what we talked about:

01:27 Why seeing the world differently matters in leadership

02:35 Practical steps for defining values as lenses in leadership

04:38 How following others' expectations can cause a midlife career crisis

08:53 Articulating a vision to attract and retain top performers

12:35 Self-reflection questions to integrate kindness into leadership

16:04 Effective accountability methods without the shame

18:41 Why showing love and trust at work boosts team performance

20:54 How to tie personal values to consistent professional behavior

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step:

Values Identifier Guide will lead you to putting those values down on paper so you can align your actions to living as your best self which reduces decision fatigue and improves decision quality.

Ready to Dive In:

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat

Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive. Nov. 7-9, 2024 Registration closes next week!

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

How many times were you asked this as a kid? How many times have you asked that TO kids?

Is that the question we really should be asking them? Or does it tie their worth to their role at work?

I love how Ken and I dove into the idea of being vs doing in this episode. Some times work doesn’t align with our values, even when it’s what we’ve been saying we want to be (or not be) our entire lives.

“I want to be a teacher when I grow up” is that true or do you really want to influence the next generation to be better?

“I want to be a nurse when I grow up” or do you want to help people heal when they find themselves hurting in life?

Unraveling our values from our role opens up an entire new world for us.

Defining what those values are and using them as a lens to view the world and make decisions through will change the way you walk through life. I hope you find this conversation helpful and my DM’s are always open if you’d like to talk through your values together!

Here’s what we talked about:

03:30 Who is Ken Black

07:22 The importance of curiosity in leadership

08:30 What questions to ask yourself when making career changes

09:01 How to align your personal values with your professional role

17:48 How values shift the way we see things and decisions we make

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step:

Values Identifier Guide will lead you to putting those values down on paper so you can align your actions to living as your best self which reduces decision fatigue and improves decision quality.

Ready to Make a Plan:

Joyosity Jumpstart

If you’re ready to stop leading from survival mode and lead with connection and joy, the Joyosity™ Jumpstart Session is for you. Clarify what you want, where you are, and what’s getting in the way so you can make a real plan.

Ready to Dive In:

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat

Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.

You’re already leading and living by your values. But the problem is… you might not know what they are and how they show up in your work.

What may surprise you is how much this impacts your success and your bottom line.

With a few stories of stuck in airports and stuck in the bosses office, Jenn shares real-life examples of how living by values (or not) and how that improved (or destroyed) experiences.

Bonus: a quick turn through the Joyosity model that helps you visualize how understanding yourself, your mindset, and your values will build trust on your team so you can be more productive, which means you will be be more profitable without sacrificing your humanity.

“Identify values” has probably been on your to-do list since, well forever. And maybe you’ve done it before, but you’re not sure where that notebook is…

Now is the time to get intentional about identifying how you want to show up in the world so that you have a blueprint for your life and leadership. It reduces decision fatigue and leads to a more healthy and happy home and work life! Isn’t that what we want?

Here’s what we talked about:

02:31 Living by values in a sticky situation

06:52 The Joyosity™ model and how it can help you know yourself

10:40 How values build trust

14:25 Ways to live by your values as a leader

17:43 How Disney won Jenn over spend money

19:40 How to figure out your values (that you already have)

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step:

Values Identifier Guide will lead you to putting those values down on paper so you can align your actions to living as your best self which reduces decision fatigue and improves decision quality.

Ready to Dive In:

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat

Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.

You have a culture whether you’re aware of it or not. Pay attention to culture, even if you’re a one-(wo)man show. Here’s why: as you grow you want to make sure it’s what drives your hires, fires and business decisions. Whether you realize it or not, culture will create conflict ,and we want that conflict productive and repairing.

In this episode, Shelby and Jenn discussed some ah-ha moments we got from our wonderful guest Moe Carrick, and lessons we’ve seen in our own lives and business around culture. We talked about how to

- welcome questions as a leader (even when they’re hard!)

- foster a culture where people feel comfortable challenging you when you step outside of your values.

- be honest about where you culture is “The way you do things here” is up to you! And it takes being an intentional leader and welcoming conflict to create a culture that bring joy at work.

Here’s what we talked about:

04:51 A common mistake business owners make when hiring

10:06 How values impact your culture at work and how conflict arises

14:05 How to foster curiosity and the story of porky the pig

19:30 The truth about leaders in toxic cultures

25:30 Culture and conflict

28:34 How you can influence culture as a middle manager

34:10 What is bringing joy at work right now

Links/ Resources:

Resources from this Month:

Episode 53: Great Workplaces Need Conflict https://youtube.com/live/gDAtiNEbg8I

Episode 54:  How Culture, Productivity, and Joy Go Hand In Hand With Moe Carrick https://youtu.be/yhVKXqA5xIo?si=4f-LJTjJjAcY350M

Episode 55: Cultivating Culture Starts with this Question with Moe Carrick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCjgYHsSqk

All about Moe:

LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/moecarrick/

Website - https://moementum.com/

Grab Moe’s Book: When Work is Good https://amzn.to/4giUNi2

The Free 99 Step:

Joyosity Explorer Map http://jennwhitmer.com/joyosity-explorer will guide you to understanding the deeper purpose and story you tell yourself about your work. Joy is linked to purpose and productivity increases by 20% or more when you directly link your purpose to your work.  

Ready to Make a Plan:

Joyosity Jumpstart https://jennwhitmer.com/jumpstart  If you’re ready to stop leading from survival mode and lead with connection and joy, the Joyosity™ Jumpstart Session https://jennwhitmer.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=3TxtmrUFUqPUT55qA3P3hOdr~a-jjAT0w-xlk5HEIFnKDXV8y_xGh.ae3HVViwBfx1K2Z5UWKXOd954KzNLKUr is for you. Clarify what you want, where you are, and what’s getting in the way so you can make a real plan.  

Ready to Dive In: 

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat http://jennwhitmer.com/joyosity-retreat Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.

No leader is waking up thinking “I want to create a toxic workplace”, quite the opposite! But without self awareness, that’s exactly what you’ll create.

Every leader should be able to answer this one question: Why do you do what you do? Whether it’s a casting broken bones, serving a chai latte, or building aircrafts. That question —Why? — is so important because that is what shapes workplace culture.

In part two of our conversation, Moe Carrick shared a story about how her daughter’s workplace (a restaurant) and how every employee had excitement and a story around each cocktail or dinner entree. The culture in that restaurant was palpable in the way the employees talked.   

The contrast to that is “toxic” workplaces that have BIG and very public mistakes. (think Boeing) We spoke about the pain that those big mistakes in leadership cause and how it can send leaders (and entire organizations) into a shame spiral.   

Moe shows us how to create a healthy culture, even sharing how her own team has let her know when she was acting misaligned with their team values.   

Telling the truth at work can be hard! For employees and leaders alike. Leadership is messy, and at times, very humbling. Self-awareness of our strengths and blindspots and choosing to live by our values is the first step to a healthy, positive workplace culture.   

Here’s what we talked about:  

03:45 The opposite of joy  

07:35 What leader’s need to do about culture  

12:36 The noticing phase as a leader  

17:35 Learning through big mistakes  

23:00 What can employees do to shift culture

Links/ Resources: 

Books mentioned:  

Dying for a Paycheck

https://amzn.to/3XmyH5x

When Work is Good

https://amzn.to/4giUNi2

Connect with Moe:  LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/moecarrick/  Website - https://moementum.com/  

The Free 99 Step:

Joyosity Explorer Map http://jennwhitmer.com/joyosity-explorer will guide you to understanding the deeper purpose and story you tell yourself about your work. Joy is linked to purpose and productivity increases by 20% or more when you directly link your purpose to your work.  

Ready to Make a Plan:

Joyosity Jumpstart https://jennwhitmer.com/jumpstart  If you’re ready to stop leading from survival mode and lead with connection and joy, the Joyosity™ Jumpstart Session https://jennwhitmer.acemlnb.com/lt.php?x=3TxtmrUFUqPUT55qA3P3hOdr~a-jjAT0w-xlk5HEIFnKDXV8y_xGh.ae3HVViwBfx1K2Z5UWKXOd954KzNLKUr is for you. Clarify what you want, where you are, and what’s getting in the way so you can make a real plan.  

Ready to Dive In: 

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat http://jennwhitmer.com/joyosity-retreat Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.

“That’s how we do things here.” Sometimes that’s used as an excuse…at least in my experience! But at it’s best, it’s a wonderful definition of culture. Moe Carrick, workplace culture expert, defines the sometimes squishy term “culture” with “that’s how we do things here.” I love that definition for a few reasons. 1 - It implies that if ignored culture will still be there 2- It means you have to live out your values in order to influence the culture.

In this conversation we dove deep into the power of being seen by a strong leader, the reward an organization will have when intentionally building a culture and the way joy can show up in the workplace. (spoiler: it’s increased productivity and engagement)

Moe shared some warning signs for what will happen when culture is ignored and helped us understand that. Although we’re two Enneagram Sevens, we’re both aware that work will not always be sunshine and rainbows. If you’re a leader trying to build a postive culture, I invite you to join us to talk through what that REALLY means and how we can move the needle toward a workplace filled with Joyosity.

Here’s what we talked about:

04:50 How Moe overcame big challenges young

07:50 Interpreting the experiences that shape you

08:44 The power of being seen

11:23 Defining culture

16:08 What does employee engagement mean?

20:30 The consequence of not paying attention to culture

24:35 Productivity and joy

Links/ Resources:

Connect With Moe on LinkedIn here, or visit her website here.

The Free 99 Step:

Joyosity Explorer Map will guide you to understanding the deeper purpose and story you tell yourself about your work. Joy is linked to purpose and productivity increases by 20% or more when you directly link your purpose to your work.

The Leadership Lift free online workshop will help you rise above the cycle of stress and exhaustion so you can avoid burnout — and even have joy at work. You'll map your own path with Jenn as a guide. Let’s move you toward excitement and confidence with a plan for your success for the whole of your life.

Ready to Dive In:

The Joyosity Leadership Retreat

Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reima

In order to have joy at work you must have conflict. I know that sounds absurd but stay with me here. It’s unrealistic to have a workplace that doesn’t experience conflict. It’s unrealistic to have any relationshipe without conflict.

Conflict is the struggle of limited resources and differing goals. And I hate to break it to you, but that shows up in every workplace, home, and friendship at some point.

Instead of running from the conflict, this episode invites you to lean into it. I share the four stages of conflict resolution and what you can do to move through the steps with dignity and respect for those around you. I share three questions to help you understand the other person in the conflict better — and we even talk about Goose and Maverick.

You deserve a workplace that has healthy conflict and real joy. If you’re ready to give up fake peace take a listen, and let me know what your thoughts are!

Here’s what we talked about:

02:46 Why do workplaces need conflict

05:26 How conflict shows up in remote workplaces

06:19 What is conflict

10:12 The 4 steps of conflict

10:53 What questions to ask to get to a resolution

23:33 How to heal from fake peace

Links/ Resources:

The Free 99 Step: 20 Helpful Phrases For Difficult Conversations: https://jennwhitmer.com/20-phrases

Ready to Dive In: The Joyosity Leadership Retreat - http://jennwhitmer.com/joyosity-retreat

Work on your leadership stories, mindset, values, and alignment with Jenn and other women who are leading. Reset. Reimagine. Revive.