05/27/2026
She had 47 browser tabs open.
An Excel spreadsheet with the full strategic plan pulled up on her second monitor. A Slack thread with 112 unread messages. A calendar booked solid until 6:30 p.m.
And her team was still waiting on a decision she had been “thinking about” for two weeks.
I know that kind of pressure.
From the outside, she looks like she is handling it.
She is competent. Prepared. Respected. She has ALL the tools and the RIGHT experience.
But internally, every decision has started to feel way heavier than it should.
Now, I have sat with this leader in boardrooms, during planning sessions, and in those honest, hallway conversations that happen after the formal meeting ends.
The issue is usually not a lack of skill. It is a loss of clarity. Clarity fades when leadership becomes all pressure and no joy.
When I talk about joy, I do not mean a mood. I mean that internal signal that helps you recognize what is aligned.
The part of you that says, “Yes, this is hard, but it’s worth it.”
When your joy signal gets quiet, everything starts to feel exhausting. Every choice feels risky. Every document needs one more round of review.
We push forward, but in the absence of joy, you’re actually navigating misery.
At some point, we realize willpower is no match for that kind of daily depletion. Burnout becomes almost guaranteed.
That is why joy belongs in leadership conversations. It is not the opposite of discipline, it's not frilly, inconsequential fluff. Joy is our source of discernment, the internal voice that keeps us sharp and gives us our edge.
If any of this sounds familiar, I want you to know you can find your way back to joy at work.
My book, “The Stay Joyful Method,” offers a detailed, easy-to-follow framework for reclaiming joy at work and sparing your mind and body from burnout.
Remember, drudgery at work is not a skill issue. It’s actually a joy deficit.
