Page 246 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

And delight can turn a tough day on a tough job into some-
thing tolerable, something laced with hope. While delight is
inherently personal, we can manage a common process to
figure out what it is. Leaders can do this exercise alone or
with their employees. Take out a pencil and a piece of paper.
Ready?
Number from 1 to 10. As quickly as you can, list 10 ran-
dom changes you could make to bring more delight into your
life. And if you find yourself resisting this suggestion, let us
warn you that there are more of these exercises to come in
this chapter, so, hey, humor us. It will take only two minutes,
and it might be delightful. Go.
Did you do it? If not, why not? Need some suggestions to
get started? Here’s Wendy’s list: take a walk after dinner, offer
to babysit our grandbaby once a week, write a novel, walk
through the backyard, take a yoga class, go to the farmers’
market, get a new pen, call my sister more, trace my geneal-
ogy, drive up the canyon with good music on.
Here’s Dave’s list: spend time weekly with each of our
children and our granddaughter, walk up the canyon, offer
tips ($10 or $20) to good flight attendants, take a bike ride,
read a novel, attend more Jazz (basketball) games, check in
daily with Mom, Google an interesting topic just to learn
about it, exercise regularly, give talks on new subjects, take
time off to stroll along a beach.
Maybe some of the things you wrote down require a hefty
amount of disposable income, but we’re guessing that much
of what brings you delight is about small and simple things,
not big and expensive things. In fact, research on what makes
people happy backs up that idea. If they were to get a windfall
of $20,000, most people think they would get the biggest kick
out of shooting the wad on a big vacation or plastic surgery or

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