Most organizations run on a straight-line growth model.
People do their work, achieve results, you make more money. Repeat. It’s logical, measurable – and especially reassuring to people who like dashboards.
The problem is that this model assumes that results and money will sustain motivation and maximize performance.
Sometimes they do. When they don’t, the usual response is to double down on the same model and hope motivation catches up.
The More Human Circular Model
There is another model that may look less efficient, but often works better in real life. Instead of chasing performance directly, you build a culture of joy that people actually enjoy being part of.
Joy creates positive energy. Energy improves performance. Performance produces success. Success increases pride. Pride strengthens the culture of joy. And the cycle keeps feeding itself.
It’s not linear. It’s circular.
The crazy thing about truth in business is this: we all say we value it. Until it costs us something. Keeping aligned with the truth is hard. It can threaten your ego. It can unsettle your team. It can make you feel temporarily less certain. It can slow things down. Check out this group designed to help leaders be more honest, inside and out.
The Excitement Question Most Leaders Never Ask
Richard Sheridan, founder of Menlo Innovations and author of Joy, Inc., built his company around a question most executives never think to put on a dashboard:
Are people excited to come to work?
For Sheridan, excitement was the visible sign of joy, and joy was the sign the culture was working. He treated joy as the core measure of success. If the culture lacked joy, he assumed something in the system was wrong.
Window – 3 Examples of Joy Fueling Success
At Menlo Innovations, people work in pairs, talk constantly, and laugh more than you expect in a room full of programmers. The company has stayed profitable year after year in the volatile tech industry, in a workplace that looks nothing like the typical software company.
Under Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines built a culture where humor, personality, and informality were not only allowed but expected. In an industry famous for bankruptcies and mergers, Southwest stayed profitable for decades while keeping employee loyalty and customer satisfaction near the top of the charts.
At Trader Joe’s, the difference is obvious the moment you walk into a store. Employees talk to customers, joke with each other, and seem unusually relaxed for retail. The company invests heavily in autonomy, internal promotion, and culture, and the result is some of the highest sales per square foot in the grocery business.
Experiential Amare Moment – Do This Now
Rate 1 to 10: How excited are you to go to work most days?
Just notice your number. It’s a data point that may be more useful than the quarterly report.
Mirror – 3 Key Questions to Reflect On
• When did work last feel genuinely energizing instead of just necessary?
• Do people around you seem alive at work, or just professionally responsible?
• What in our culture might be producing results but not producing joy?
Different industries. Same loop.
Joy produces positive energy, which leads to better performance, which grows pride, resulting in more joy.
While the linear model tries to drive results and hopes joy follows, the circular model builds joy and lets results follow.
Research – Why Joy Improves Performance
Barbara Fredrickson’s research shows that positive emotions such as joy expand thinking, creativity, and resilience, helping people perform better over time.
Studies on positive affect at work have likewise found that employees who feel good while working show higher creativity, better decision-making, and stronger performance than those who do not.
Bottom line? How people feel at work is not separate from results — it helps drive them.
Door Into Action – 5 Amare Steps to Bring Joy Back Into the System
1. Make progress visible and collaborative. Set up the workplace so people naturally show their work, get input, and help each other as they go.
2. Remove one daily irritation. Fix one process, rule, or habit that everyone complains about and nobody changes.
3. Bring personality to work. Encourage conversation, humor, and human interaction instead of treating professionalism like emotional restraint.
4. Track joy as a performance metric. Regularly ask how excited people feel about the work and share the results.
5. Make joy a leadership responsibility. Treat excitement about the work as something you and the leadership team are responsible for enabling.
Amare Team Talk
Ask everyone on your team to rate from 1 to 10 how much they enjoy coming to work lately. Write the numbers down without discussion
Then ask what would raise the score by one point. The answers are usually small, practical, and surprisingly revealing.
Inspirational Challenge
Most leaders were taught that if the results are good, the system must be working.
The truth is you can hit your numbers and still feel something is missing. The work gets done, the goals are met, and yet the excitement isn’t there — for you or for the people around you.
When people are excited to come to work, when they are joyful, the culture is usually healthy. When they aren’t, something in the system needs attention.
Everyday this month, ask yourself a simple question: Am I excited to go to work?
And if the answer is “no,” you may just need a different model.
In joy,
– Moshe
Today’s Amare Wave Wednesday Quote
“Joy is the purpose of the business, and profit is the result.”
—Richard Sheridan, author of Joy, Inc.
Click here and read more Amare Wave Wednesday newsletters on related topics:
The Smart Leader’s Team-Building Shortcut? Fun Strategic Retreats
5 Amare Steps to Revive the Spirit of Your Organization: A Leadership Essential
What’s the Most Important Thing You Can Do As a Leader? It Isn’t What You Think
4 Amare Ways to Find Happiness and Fulfillment in Your Work
I Love My Life—Even When It’s Not Perfect: Thriving as a Leader Through It All
Original article published on Inc.com.
