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Exuberance, enthusiasm and leadership
It's become a word to describe overflowing joy and energy. Its synonyms include enthusiasm and excitement, liveliness, cheerfulness and high spirits. Have you enough exuberance in your life and in your work with others? How might you get more of it? Who are the naturally exuberant? Can we help others become more exuberant? If we are inclined towards depression and despondency, can we change? Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, has answered those questions in a recent book.
Jamison has suffered from manic depression. The story of her determination to gain control of the disorder is told in An Unquiet Mind (Picador, 1997). She knows the difference between exuberance and mania. She deals with that most difficult of questions for those who tend towards mania, depression or both (now called bi-polar disorder): do anti-depressants worsen the condition, suppress or cure it?
Jamison argues for more exuberance and believes is to be far more important than is conventionally acknowledged. Exuberant people act, she argues. "If enthusiasm finds the opportunities and energy makes the most of them", she says, "then a mood that yokes the two has got to be formidable". She believes exuberant people take in the world and act on it differently from less lively and less engaged people. They get fired-up, have a constant curiosity, and their energy is contagious. They have a high level of tolerance for adversity. Their capacity to fire infectious enthusiasm is a fundamental quality of leadership.
Americans seem (at least to Kay Redfield Jamison and some of us who are not Americans) to be more genetically selected for exuberance than the British and their recent descendants. In New Zealand, (where US exuberance is often scorned) the characteristic passionlessness and monochromatic reserve for which our European people are known (often scorned by others) is rapidly breaking down - at least in public stadiums in which the games of rugby football or rugby "sevens" are played. Is increasing exuberance good or bad, healthy or unhealthy?
Without passion for our purpose, work becomes boring and a drudge. Without celebrations, every day is a Wednesday. Joylessness leads to stress and illness. Misery drains energy and poisons relationships.
When work ceases to be fun, as someone said, we should give up work. Is that a crazy suggestion or simple common sense, rarely practised? Can we be too exuberant? Are scepticism and reserve important, healthy qualities we should practise to keep us balanced and realistic? Are the cynics right? Is constructive cynicism possible or a contradiction in terms?
Kay Redfield Jamison acknowledges the dangers of exuberance and the difficulties of developing it within or under structure: for children in classrooms, structured sports, structured hobbies, sports and homework, for example. But she makes a strong case for introducing greater enthusiasm, excitement and liveliness into our lives everywhere. There's a strong connection between these personal characteristics and wellbeing - organisation and individual.
For further reviews, an excerpt, and internet purchasing details about Kay Redfield Jamison's latest book, "Exuberance: The Passion for Life", (Alfred A Knopf), search for it at AmazonBooks.com.Select and contact a Mentor if you'd like to discuss these ideas or want support to make progress with your own issues.
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