Worry v. Joy - The Challenge of Leadership

"Worry is the greatest thief of joy." - Warren W. Wiersbe

This quote discusses an important concept that many leaders fail to consider. The best leaders are leaders that display a joy in what they are doing. These are the people who others want to be around and others want to follow. Having joy in life and displaying this joy is essential to great leadership.

Yet it is a reality that as a leader, as a leader you are going to be faced with tough situations and decisions that will potentially cause you to worry. How will you respond?

When difficult situations come up you are faced with a few possible reactions.

1. Worry, and let is affect your joy and therefor the attitude of thos around you. Realize if you do this, it will bring down your leadership and cause others to fall into the same pit. Remember others are watching you. You can justify it by saying that you are not someone who hides their feelings. While this is noble, as a leader you are called to set a standard and to be one who demonstrates courage in the face of tough challenges. By showing you are worried, you have become a catalyst for fear rather than courage.

2. Put a fake smile on your face. Many people hide their worry about a situation to others by just smiling through it. It is coping mechanism, but it does not solve the problem. You don't want to have a fake happiness or just a facade that will only deter others in the long run.

3. Let joy reign. Although we are all face with tremondously tough decisions and hurdles, there is alwasy a reason for thankfulness and joy. There is always a reason for hope and courage. We must have faith that this situation is not the end all, be all. It is just another bump and as we look back at our life, we hopefully can see how we have survived past difficult situations and have been made stronger for it. Perserverance builds character. We must believe that the situation we are in will only make ourselves, our team, and our character stronger.

When you are able to do this, others will follow and they also will not let worry, but joy reign. They will not be robbed of joy and you will know that you served as a protector of their joy.