How many times have you heard the phrases, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” or “Don’t take yourself so seriously” in conversations about the workforce? These words of wisdom can be difficult to adopt when we are doing more with less, facing a fiscal cliff, unhappy with our pay, or (gasp!) working for an agency that received a not-so-great rating on the latest Best Places to Work survey.
The truth of the matter is that every organization faces turbulent times now and again. That is a reality and just a part of life. The key is how leaders in your agency are communicating with their employees and motivating each individual during downtimes. Leadership can be fun! Your job can be fun! Too often, we lose sight of that perspective. I recently came across this video that reminds us to remember how to have fun in our jobs and in our lives. Ken Blanchard is always telling us to put our right hand over our left shoulder and our left hand over our right shoulder and give ourselves a hug. So give yourself a hug. Give your colleague a hug. If that doesn’t help, watch the video below and I hope it reminds you to enjoy your job, be a Servant Leader, enjoy life, and have fun!
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I’ve always appreciated the Mary Poppins philosophy of work:
In every job that must be donethere is an element of fun.
You find the fun and, snap,
The job’s a game.
Great post. So true.