In today’s job market, it appears to me that everyone is trying to find a job that they love.  In fact, for members of Gen-Y, job hopping and searching to find a job they love appears to be a hobby.  Jon Morrow - a twentysomething entreprenuer and interesting blogger who has good natural perspective - writes a great post on How To Find Work That You Love. 

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone had a job that they loved?  I would offer, that a great deal of finding a job you love depends on your own perspective, and a Good Perspective is the key to finding happiness with anything.  However, instead of looking at it from Finding a Job You Love, lets look at it from a DL’s position. 

A DL is a Designated Leader, and, as one, you will endure a lot of pressure.  If you are in charge of a team it can be difficult to lift their spirits and present good leadership.

Last week I wrote about How To Influence an Employee Without Resentment, and I used an example of a Supervisor who used bad judgement in teaching his employees about customer service.  What you do as a leader has a massive impact on your team.  To paraphrase from Jim Collins‘ book, Good To Great, a leader’s roll is not to motivate the employees, but rather to not demotivate them. 

How many times have you seen a person who has been designated as a leader demotivate their team?  A thousand times, right? How you treat or motivate your team will impact their feelings towards their job and their boss, and at some level impact whether or not they have found a job they love.

Here are three suggestions to spark or increase the Joy in your team’s lives and potentially improve their perspective:

1. A keen understanding of where you stand.  Nothing is worse than standing in the middle of know where and not know where you are going.  Many times, teams are being blindly lead by there leaders with no comprehension of the team’s goals, where they are going, or where they stand.Share with your team the goals, and then turn them into their goals, in other words, get them to buy into them.  True joy will come from those who are devoted to a cause bigger than themselves.
2. Acknowledge others and lift those in need.  Positive reinforcement from the leader will do a great deal to lift your team’s spirits.  They need to hear praise and adoration on a regular basis, and those that are falling behind need to look up and see your hand helping them back up. 
3. Understand that Joy produces Strength.  Dr. John Maxwell says it best, “When you are winning, nothing hurts. When you are losing everything hurts.”When the team is joyful it will produce strength and with each new step you will increase momentum.  And believe me, momentum is a DL’s greatest ally. 

Share a little joy with your team and watch both of your perspectives rise.

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