We serve an organization of women religious, and when we meet with their leadership team, it’s their practice to begin our day with a reading and prayer and sharing the state of the heart, which is an opportunity to express the parts of the reading and/or prayer that touched us. This line moved us in May: “an orientation toward excellence tempered by gentleness, peace, and joy.” So, what’s powerful about that line?
As leaders, we must be oriented toward something, or we’ll wander aimlessly as the world changes around us. Being oriented toward excellence offers a unique compass point because we can use it to inspire and assess everything around us. If we’re exploring new products or services, we can ask how they will move us closer to excellence. If we’re evaluating our teams, we can provide a vision for what excellence looks like and then hold people to that standard. Simply put, an orientation toward excellence can ground us and drive us!
But we are sometimes so driven by goals that we fall into traps, such as not knowing the difference between urgency and importance, struggling to delegate because we don’t think someone else can meet our standards, leaving ourselves little time to rest and relax, comparing ourselves to others and finding ourselves lacking, and compromising our own values. And that’s where the “tempered by gentleness, peace, and joy” comes into play.
As we lead, we must also be kind, calm, and joyful – first with ourselves and then with our teams. Numerous studies have found that kind leaders build stronger teams, create cultures that are considered more innovative, and generate higher levels of employee engagement, performance, and retention. Researchers have found that calm leaders demonstrate significant advantages as they inspire trust, make better decisions, and boost organizational resilience. Finally, studies have linked joyful leaders to lower turnover, stress and burnout reduction, and higher productivity and creativity.
The prayer’s message is clear – an orientation toward excellence is not complete without the tempering of gentleness, peace, and joy. These qualities are not in conflict, but rather, they complement each other. As leaders, it’s about finding that balance in each moment and each relationship.
Take a Moment to Reflect: Consider which element is currently missing in your leadership – the orientation toward excellence or the tempering of gentleness, peace, and joy?