Page 65 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

relishing beauty, being present in the moment, and having
fun at work. As McKell and his team laid out the bank’s new
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identity, they encouraged employees to have fun in shaping
this identity. Corporate fun included contests, celebrations,
and communications about the new direction.
When leaders encourage civility and delight in how work
is done, they go a long way toward creating a sense of abun-
dance, as shown in Chapter 9. These sources of delight are
highly personal, depending on the personality of the leader
and the requirements of the employees.
The hostility rampant in modern life is itself under fire
these days. The cry for tolerance demands that we outgrow
our racial, religious, political, ethnic, and gender stereo-
types. The cry for civility also calls on us to outgrow our
we-they, win-lose, right-wrong, blame-and-shame mentality.
As we move away from hostility and blame toward problem
solving, listening, curiosity, and compassion, simple civility
greases the skids.
Under the rubric of valuing differences, leaders are
encouraged to understand, respect, and learn from the per-
spectives of people of different races, genders, backgrounds,
or even professional training, replacing hostility with civility.
We may also want to look for and rejoice in the different
ways people find sweetness in life, going beyond civility to
delight. Sensitivity to such differences helps us find a wide
variety of ways to bring pleasure and delight into the work-
place. For some perhaps a celebration of 10 years of service is
meaningful; for others a renewing sense of delight is evoked
by a note from the boss, a compliment, a shared joke, a
favorite song, a different chair, a new dish at lunch, or sim-
ply a beautiful sunset shared on the way to the parking lot.
Delight often comes in small packages, and when money is

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