Less F’s - More Joy! (And Why That Might Be the Most Strategic Move You Make This Year)
Today, I read a piece from Harvard Business Review about how leaders underestimate the value of employee joy.
And I had two immediate thoughts:
Finally, someone said it.
Also… how are we just now figuring this out?
Because if you’ve led teams for more than five minutes, you already know this:
People don’t burn out from work.
They burn out from how the work feels.
The Shift I Didn’t Plan
Lately, I’ve been operating with a new, highly scientific strategy:
Give less f*#%s. Have more joy.
(Not zero f’s. I’m still employed. Let’s be reasonable.)
But I stopped:
Carrying projects that weren’t mine
Over-functioning for broken systems
Ignoring the very obvious signals from my body that said, “this pace is not sustainable”
And something unexpected happened.
My energy didn’t dip.
It skyrocketed.
My performance didn’t suffer.
It got more intentional… more precise… more effective.
Almost like… removing unnecessary pressure actually improves results.
Wild concept.
Where Leaders Get This Wrong
Most organizations are still operating under one very flawed assumption:
Pressure = Performance
It doesn’t.
Pressure creates compliance.
Joy creates commitment.
And according to research highlighted by Harvard Business Review:
Employees experiencing joy are more engaged
They perform better
They are significantly less likely to leave
Translation:
You can push people harder… or you can create an environment where they actually want to show up.
Only one of those scales.
The Lie We’ve Been Sold
Somewhere along the way, “professionalism” became code for:
Ignore your instincts
Power through exhaustion
Measure output at the expense of experience
We’ve normalized leaders who:
Miss every signal their team is struggling
Confuse urgency with importance
Treat humans like line items in a forecast
And then we act surprised when engagement drops and attrition spikes.
What Changed When I Let Go
When I stopped gripping everything like it was life or death…
I got clearer.
I made better decisions.
I stopped reacting and started leading again.
Turns out, when everything feels urgent, nothing actually is.
A Better Way to Lead
This isn’t about lowering standards.
It’s about raising awareness.
Leaders who get this right:
Pay attention to energy, not just output
Respect capacity (their own and others)
Know the difference between real pressure and manufactured chaos
Create environments where people can actually think, not just respond
Because here’s the truth:
None of this matters as much as we pretend it does.
And ironically…
That’s exactly what makes people better at their jobs.
Final Thought
There’s a line from Ted Lasso where Danny Rojas says:
“Football is life… but also, football is death… but mostly football is life.”
I’d like to offer a slight leadership remix:
Work matters. But it’s not everything.
And when you loosen your grip just a little…
you might find a lot more joy on the other side.