Sheryl Raphael Whitaker has spent the majority of her career making a case most leadership conversations are afraid to make. Joy is not a reward. It's an operating system. As a leadership coach, talent strategist, author of “It Starts with Joy,” and a host of a weekly show by the same name, Sheryl says difference between those two mindsets changes everything about how you lead.
Her frame starts with a mindset shift that sounds deceptively simple. Many leaders spend their careers believing that joy is not something one can expect at work. They focus their personal development on building skills and capabilities instead of understanding what makes them tick.
Joy at work isn't something you unlock when conditions improve. It's an internal alignment that runs underneath everything, steady and available, regardless of what's happening around you.
Sheryl also draws a line that most personal development conversations tend to blur. You're either leading from joy or from fear. That's not a criticism. It's a diagnosis. Most of what we call toxic leadership, she says, is just fear that never got named.
What makes her approach to authentic leadership different is where she locates it. Joy isn't the reward waiting at the end of a hard season. It's your chief operating officer, running before the meeting starts, before the difficult conversation, before the decision that keeps you up at night. Sheryl knows what it costs an organization when leaders hand that operating system over to their circumstances.
This conversation is for the leader who knows something feels misaligned but hasn't found the language for it yet. The OD practitioner who sees the pattern in their organization and wants to interrupt it. The coach doing the inner work but still getting hijacked by the room.
Sheryl's invitation is direct. You don't have to wait for conditions to be right.
You can lead from who you actually are, right now, even when the people around you are hiding it.
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Recommended Next Videos to Watch:
- Stop Hiding Your Truth | What's Possible When You Speak Up | Dr. Lalith Wijedoru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfPdQUPB-Hc&list=PLbWfh34FP_dWsmhLMNNz6IPXanydwpH-U&index=11
- Stop Trying To 'Fix' Yourself - You Are Not Deficient | Author Jules Kuroda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5eJl8VSsio&list=PLbWfh34FP_dWsmhLMNNz6IPXanydwpH-U&index=14
- Joy Is the Missing Link to Resilience and Purpose | Purpose Guide Anna Hall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7a9sfOE94&list=PLbWfh34FP_dWsmhLMNNz6IPXanydwpH-U&index=34
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In this episode, Sheryl answers the following questions:
- How to find more joy in your work?
- How to be happy at work when you hate it?
- How to make work fun and enjoyable?
- As a leader, am I allowed to have fun and experience joy?
Resources mentioned in the episode:
- Sheryl’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryl-raphael-whitaker/
- Sheryl’s Book: https://itstartswithjoy.com/
- It Starts With Joy Live: https://www.youtube.com/@itstartswithjoylive
- Sheryl’s Company: https://www.edenanthonyelitetalent.com/
- Derek Sievers’ How to start a movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V74AxCqOTvg
Chapters
0:00 Definition of Joy and Leading with Joy
1:14 Sheryl Raphael Whitaker and Joy as Operating System
3:14 It Starts With Joy…and it started in Insurance
6:54 Role Model for Leading with Joy
8:30 Leading with Joy or Leading with Fear
9:13 Difference between Joy and Happiness
11:31 Inspiration for Name of Sheryl’s Company
15:50 Discovering Superpower of a Genuine Love of People
17:24 The Most Difficult Challenge of Superpower
21:22 Helpful Perspectives on Difficult People
24:30 What Sheryl Knows To Be True About Superpower
27:49 Not Everybody Has Good Intentions
30:50 What’s next for Sheryl
32:47 Every Leader Needs a First Follower
33:48 Lightning Round
Music in this episode by Ian Kastner.
"What Do You Know To Be True?" is an invitation to be inspired to become more of your possible self by discovering your superpower, unlocking your potential, and creating your impact in the world.
This podcast is for leaders, coaches, org development practitioners, and anyone who works with people who want to be inspired to discover their superpower, unlock their possibilities, and make meaningful impact in the world.
For more info about the podcast or to check out more episodes, go to: https://www.youtube.com/@WDYKTBT?sub_confirmation=1
"What Do You Know To Be True?" is hosted by Roger Kastner, is a production of Three Blue Pens, and is recorded on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Suquamish people. To discover the ancestral lands of the indigenous people whose land you may be on, go to: https://native-land.ca/
Keywords
#burnout #leadership #beatburnout #authenticleadership #personaldevelopment #leadershipcoach #mindset