It is with great joy that we announce our soon-to-be-published book, The JoyPowered™ Team. The book is written by Susan White, Peggy Hogan, Liz Zirkelbach, Denise McGonigal, Erin Brothers, Laura North, and myself. It’s formatted, designed, and edited by Emily Miller. Although I’ve written a book by myself and co-authored a book with Denise McGonigal, I have to admit that I was excited and also a bit leery about writing with six other Purple Inksters. And we weren’t just writing a book about teams, but about JoyPowered™ teams; I was really hoping we could keep up with the task!

In this book, we set out to determine what makes a strengths-based team – a high-performing, excellent team that truly finds joy in working together – what we call a JoyPowered™ team. We confirmed what we thought going in; we were truly a JoyPowered™ team. We exceeded deadlines, provided honest feedback, helped each other, and used our strengths!

Being on teams at various times in our life’s journey enables us to function at our best. My life has been enriched and more successful because of the teams around me – it doesn’t matter if I am the leader, a follower, or a teammate. Teams push us further, stretch us, encourage us, enhance our skills, question us, and slow us down when necessary.

It’s important to be thoughtful and intentional about making ourselves and our teams better, and to understand how each person is inclined to think, act, and feel. Understanding each other helps us navigate issues, projects, and feelings, and know how we can work best together to accomplish goals and complete projects.

There’s no one way to create a JoyPowered™ workspace; what brings one person joy may not bring you joy. I encourage you to think about what JoyPowered™ might mean to you. Though the true definition of JoyPowered™ is unique to you, there are some key traits that are important to a JoyPowered™ team. Be intentional about:

1. Using your strengths
2. Encouraging constant creativity
3. Setting clear expectations
4. Making the connection to the mission, purpose, or goals of the team
5. Moving forward

Creating a JoyPowered™ team does not have to be expensive or time-consuming, but it does have to be intentional. You can develop a JoyPowered™ team that will be more innovative and more profitable as you nurture more positive, healthier, happier employees who serve internal or external customers better and stay with your team longer.

“…it’s about understanding what brings others joy and acknowledging that it is not always the same from one person to the next. Therefore, it’s not that there is one simple answer on how to bring joy, but the individual answers are simple.” – JoDee Curtis, JoyPowered™: Intentionally Creating an Inspired Workspace

In the next couple months, watch for our book on Amazon, the JoyPowered™ website, and the Purple Ink website. We think you will enjoy it and be inspired to create or enhance your own JoyPowered™ team! Continue following our blog as we continue to share some snippets from each of our chapters!