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Learning Leadership from Dogs Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2025
Joie de vivre is a French expression which basically refers to an attitude of exuberant enjoyment of life. Or in other words, to simply delight in life—to not simply pursue happiness but instead to be happy. This is an attitude that very few people seem to possess—look around you, no really, take a look around you. I can bet it’ll be hard to find or spot people who live with an attitude of joie de vivre. The various trials and tribulations of life can certainly beat the joy out of one's life, but it is really so important to strive to retain that joy for life, or else we run the risk of becoming mere hollow versions of ourselves. What's the point of earning money or having material riches, if one doesn't even relish or experience a joyous existence?
Think about the grumpy joyless bosses or leaders or coworkers or any sort of people you may have interacted with in the past (or even have currently)—it isn't much fun to work with individuals like that, is it? Misery begets misery, as the old saying goes. There is some research too that suggests that joyless or unhappy leaders tend to be ineffective leaders—after all, if you have a gloomy joyless Squidward for a boss, you wouldn't necessarily be happy yourself, would you? There is a journal called the Journal of Happiness Studies which focuses on topics like happiness, subjective wellbeing, and other related variables. If you peruse the articles through the various issues of that journal, you will begin to see how very important happiness or joy is for a variety of outcomes, be they personal, organizational, or societal outcomes.
Now dogs are quite definitely the best at exemplifying this undying spirit of joie de vivre. Think about your own pet (if you are fortunate enough to have one), and remember how he or she treats you jubilantly when you get back home from work. And then when you prepare to go out for a walk or a hike with your dog; if your dog is like a majority of dogs out there, then he or she will probably bounce about the house or at least politely wait with eager anticipation.
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