Self-care is more than just bubble baths and relaxation—it’s about reconnecting with the joy that first brought you to your work. In this episode of Early Childhood Chapters, we’re joined by Dr. Teresa Byington, author of Find the Joyful Leader Within, to explore how educators and leaders can cultivate joy in their work and create positive, uplifting environments for themselves and their teams.
Dr. Byington shares practical strategies for bringing joy into leadership, avoiding burnout, and building a culture that inspires both educators and children. From simple mindset shifts to actionable techniques like "joy spotting" and keeping a "joy journal," she offers a roadmap for transforming your daily work experience.
Whether you're a teacher, administrator, or childcare professional, this conversation will empower you to lead with joy and purpose.
In This Episode, We Discuss:
- How joyful leadership transforms workplace culture
- Practical ways to bring joy into your daily routine
- How self-care and leadership go hand in hand
- Tips for delegating and “lightening your load” as a leader
- How fostering joy in adults impacts young children’s experiences
For more episodes of Early Childhood Chapters, listen here or subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform.
Episode Transcript
The following is a lightly-edited transcript of our interview.
Emily Garman: Welcome to Early Childhood Chapters, the podcast where we share ideas and strategies to support educators, caregivers, and families with young children.
February is self-care month at Griffin House. But self-care isn't just bubble baths and long walks and books. What is self-care could reconnect you with the joy that first brought you to this field. That's what today's guest, Dr. Teresa Byington, explores in her book, Find the Joyful Leader Within.
Teresa is a professor, consultant, and trainer whose work focuses on helping educators create positive, joyful environments for themselves and everyone around them. In this episode, she shares stories and practical tips to help you find joy in your work and lead with purpose.
This month at Griffin House, we're focusing on self-care as kind of our topic and our theme for all of our content. And when people think about self-care, they usually think of taking an ice bath or going on a walk or treating themselves to a new book or something like that.
But your book really takes self-care to a whole new level for educators in particular, in terms of helping them access the joy that led them to this field in the first place. So I'm excited to talk to you particularly about this book. Can you introduce yourself a little bit, Theresa, and tell us what brought you to write this book?
Teresa Byington, EdD: I'll be happy to. So I am a professor with the University of Nevada, Reno extension. And then I'm also an author and a consultant and a trainer. And a few years ago, one of my team members said there is a TedTalk that you should listen to. And it was by Ingrid Fetell Lee, and it's called where Joy Hides and How to Find It.
I watched that TEDx talk and I was like, wow, this is really interesting. It really drew me in. I thought, you know, I need to spend a little bit more time thinking about joy. So a few weeks later, I had a retreat with my team, and one of the sessions I did this was a two and a half day retreat, but for about 30 minutes we watched the Ted talk and we just talked about joy and what brings them joy, and it was just a really pleasant 30 minutes.
Well, later in the evaluation, I said, what had the biggest impact on you during the retreat? And it really surprised me because a lot of them mentioned that session on Joy, and I was like, wow, joy is really resonating with my team. We need to think about bringing more joy into our work because, I mean, what shouldn't be?
Like you said, what should be more joyful than working with young children? And so we started talking about things like, what could we do to have a more joyful culture? What things bring joy to your relationships? What are some things that you find joyful in your life, and what could bring more joy to your life? And as we had those conversations, a lot of interesting things came up and it began to guide our work, and we came together and decided that joy would be one of our core values.
And because we made joy one of our core values and came together and talked about creating a more joyful culture, our culture started being more joyful, and we started being more joyful leaders. And it was just amazing to see the transformation. It's been about five, six years now and it's just a joyful culture most of the time. So that's been really a great thing.
And Ingrid has also written a book called Joyful The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness and she has a great website and does a lot of amazing things. And, you know, she's really informed my joyful leadership in my work.
Emily Garman: That's fascinating, because when you think about how much time most of us spend in our jobs, most people would probably say, oh, I don't really like my job, or it's okay, or it's not the place that we'd want to spend most of our time if we didn't have to. So thinking about joy in the workplace and how we could intentionally put it there is pretty enticing to think about, and it seems to work with you.
So tell me a little bit how, as you've implemented this and worked with other organizations to to do the same. How is joyful leadership different than what we probably typically see in terms of traditional leadership?
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well, I think it's just another essential element. I mean, there are many things that a person has to be an effective leader, but when you bring more of that joy into your leadership, it changes things. It was interesting. Recently, our team has grown so large that we had to move several of our people into another area in our building, and several other people from that part of the building have come to us and mentioned how excited they are to have our team members, because they just have joy.
They bring joy to the environment. They they set up their cubicle with joyful decorations in a joyful environment. Their conversations are joyful and it's just been interesting how having that as part of our core values has really changed not only ourselves, but how other people see us. And that entices them to want to bring more joy into their leadership and really joyful leadership.
To me, I define it as someone that uplift, guides and inspires others with a joyful spirit. So you don't even have to have an official title to be a joyful leader. For example, an early childhood teacher. I mean, if you're engaging with children and you're joyful and you're just bringing that joyful spirit to your classroom, you're a joyful leader.
If you're an early childhood coach and you're inspiring others to enhance improve the quality, you're a joyful leader. Enhancing quality. Even children that are kind and do things for others and are happy they're they're joyful leaders in their classroom. So really, anyone that wants to uplift, inspire and guide others with joy to me is a joyful leader. So really, everyone can be a joyful leader.
Emily Garman: How did you learn to react as a leader with joy, instead of maybe a default reaction that that a leader typically might have, which is, oh, I've got to deal with the staff problem, or the toilet's backed up again, or, you know, just any of those problems that you, you have to deal with some just kind of headaches when you're a leader of any capacity.
So how did you teach yourself to react with joy instead?
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well, each day you make a choice and how you're going to react to things. And sometimes you don't feel very joyful and that's okay. But also, what are some things that I've done is as soon as I walk into my office, I have some wooden letters that spell out the word joy. I have things that say choose joy.
I have things that I find joyful in my environment. So those reminders remind me to face each day with joy. Also, I think that we have to kind of reframe things. And I'll give you an example. So we live we're in a large building. There's over 100 people in our office, and we have shared meeting space that we can reserve and use.
And one day I got a call from the front desk and they're like, so-and-so's in the meeting room, and they're really upset because it appears that your group left it messy. And I remember thinking, oh, my group would never do that. Well, then I thought, you know, does it really matter? The point is, it's messy and it needs to be cleaned up.
So I hurried and gathered some of my team members. We just went down to the space and we cleaned it up and we asked the person, is there anything else we can do? Can we help you set up or different things? And I remember just being there like, you know, surprise. You know, we didn't we didn't put blame. We didn't deny. We just went in there and joyfully cleaned it up. And that is kind of the attitude that I find that can make just a difference. You know, her being upset was completely diffused and went on and she was like, you know, just happy to work with this again. Now, whether we did it or not, it didn't matter.
You know, what needed to be done. We needed to clean the space. And so we did. And we did it joyfully. We didn't complain. We just did it joyfully. And it made a difference. Those kind of actions and thinking about those kind of examples are, I think, what makes a difference.
Emily Garman: It really does because you could have easily gotten entrenched and said, well, it's not my problem. We didn't do it. I'm not going to go clean that up. I think a lot of people would justifiably react that way. But choosing a different route really made a difference. And that is such an important change.
So for classroom teachers in particular, I'm thinking about they've got a million things to do every day. They're always tired. They don't have enough time. What are ways that because I know a lot of our listeners are classroom teachers for them to choose joy.
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well, there are those days that are really, really challenging. But again, I think if you really think about having that core value of bringing joy into the classroom and looking for joy, I mean, one of the things that Ingrid talks about is joy spotting and joy spotting is noticing joyful things within your environment. And so we tend to find what we're looking for if we come into the classroom and like, oh, it's going to be another hard day, you know, the kids are going to be all wild.
Or if we come in and students say, you know, I'm really looking forward to today. I have a lot of opportunities to interact with the children and the families, and we're just going to have a real joyful day. Just having that mindset of how you start the day can make a difference in how it begins to proceed. Now, hopefully you're in an environment, but just what can you bring to that environment?
And also thinking about what can I control and what can I control? I can control how I approach the children. I can control how I interact with the children and the families. Even if other things are going on around me, I can still bring joy into my work. And so I think, like I said, each day, it's kind of that choice.
And notice the things that are joyful and then thinking about how to bring more joy into the atmosphere. I'll give you another example. One of my staff was teaching a series of classes to early childhood professionals, and this was the child development associate. So they were coming a couple nights a week over multiple months. And of course, how did they come in?
They've been working all day. So they're tired. They're hungry. You know, they've had a tough day and they're not always feeling like, well, now I get to sit here for a couple hours and, you know, learn about being an early childhood professional. So one thing that she did is one of their first classes. She gave them a joy journal.
It was just a little colorful book. And as soon as they came to class, she says, I want you to write something in here that brought you joy today. And some of them grumbled, you know, well, if I have to. And then she asked a few of them to share, and a couple of them did, reluctantly. But what was interesting was over time they got more and more excited about writing in their Joy journal, and they started noticing things that were joyful that they could share when they came to class at night, and soon they were eager to share, and they were excited to share, and they were noticing more joyful things in their classroom.
And it changed the whole atmosphere of the class, and it also changed the atmosphere in their classrooms, because they were intentionally looking and noticing those joyful moments.
Emily Garman: I'm glad you mentioned the idea, the idea of a journal, because your book, Find the Joyful Leader Within is is sort of a hybrid book. You've shared so many examples and stories like some of the ones you've shared with us today, but it's also almost like a a guided journal. Are there activities? And I don't want to say workbook because that doesn't sound fun, but the really fun activities and exercises to go through individually and with your team, what are some ways that people have used your book in different settings?
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well, there is a group and they're actually in Michigan, and they received a grant. A lot of them were college professors, and they were able to come together and get a copy of the book and meet and talk. I think they had six sessions, one on each chapter. But then the exciting part was in the grant, they each got $250 to spend on things that would make their environment and their work more joyful, and I just thought that was amazing, and it was fun to hear the things that they had had purchased, you know, to make their environment more joyful.
You know, it could have been pictures or activities or games or just different things to make their environment more joyful. Another group, you know, also, they're having meetings and they would talk about different sections of the book. And so having a book club is a great way to meet and talk about it, because at the end of each chapter, I've given some discussion questions that you could use.
There's a reflection activity, and then there's also a place that you can create an action plan of how you want to implement some of the strategies that have been presented.
Emily Garman: And it really seems like it would work in any kind of professional setting. It's geared toward educators and educational environments, but I found a lot of the, the things I read just really applicable for me in my team, too.
Joyful leadership, which is what you're talking about, whether you're a staff member or a leader of any kind, it's really going to affect the children that you work with, too, if you're in an early childhood education setting. So talk about how if you have any examples to of how this kind of leadership shift in the adults has affected the children.
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well, there's one particular center that one of my coaches would go out to and she'd call it her happy place. And it really was when you walked into there just from the time you walked in, the director had such a welcoming demeanor and just you felt happy to be there. And then as you walked in the classrooms, you could tell that each teacher had added their personal touches and there were pictures of the children and they had different activities that were going on.
But the teachers had such a calm and joyful way that they interacted with the children and the families, that people just loved being there. And no matter which classroom you went into, it was just a happy place. And that was because the teachers and that staff had determined that they really wanted to bring joy and a positive atmosphere to their work.
And so the leadership and instilled that and all the staff were behind it, and they really worked hard to bring that in. That doesn't mean there weren't days that weren't, you know, or moments. But overall, all they had embraced that idea of having a joyful, happy place that someone could come and just feel really good about.
Emily Garman: And they made a choice. They made a choice to approach things with joy. And it. I think if you make that choice over time, it can become a habit.
Teresa Byington, EdD: Yeah. People have talked about that when they come to work for us that there's a difference. There's a difference. They notice the difference. And some people even see our team and they're like they want to come join our team because they notice that we interact joyfully and differently. And one thing that I will say is that it starts from the very first day someone starts.
And so there's a number of things that we do to start people off on the right foot before they even come to work for us. We have them fill out what's called a joyful welcome form. And they share, you know, like their favorite color and favorite snacks and hobbies and different things. And then we create just a little basket with some of their favorite treats and different things that they like.
And we decorate their cubicle that says welcome with their favorite colors. We assign them a buddy, someone that's kind of their go to person. It's usually someone that has the same position that they have, but doesn't stop their supervisor, but someone that can help them navigate the culture and that is made such a difference. So there's a lot of things that you can do.
One person even just started crying when she saw these things because she's like, I've never been welcomed like this and a job. And I mean, it set the tone. She was like, I belong. She felt like she belonged from the very first day. So you have to think about what are things that you can do that set the tone for what you want, and then what are the expectations?
And even when we're hiring people, we talk about these are our core values. These are our expectations. This is the kind of workplace that we have established. You know, would you feel comfortable in this type of workplace? Is this the kind of place that you would like to work? And of course, those that are more in tune with that or more likely to end up working for us, because that's the kind of atmosphere we've created.
Emily Garman: And some people maybe not even realize that it could be like that. But you could have a joyful workplace.
Teresa Byington, EdD: And also people were just kind of surprised. They're like, wow, I didn't think work could be like this. Like, why not? You know, it should be like that everywhere.
Emily Garman: Absolutely. That's got it. It has a ripple effect. All the way down to the children. Like you were saying.
Emily Garman: You know, one of the things that I've thought a lot about with educators and, and other leaders is they have to be good at delegating. And one of the things you talked about in the book is how “lightening your load”--that's the phrase you use, “lightening your load” can be self-care. It can be an essential leadership task. Tell me a little bit about that and what if you have any tips for delegation? Because I know that's really hard for some people to let go of so many tasks. But when you do that, you maybe find some room for joy.
Teresa Byington, EdD: Yeah, it can be hard to delegate. Especially, you know, you kind of have that fear of giving it to someone else because you lose that control over what you're doing, and especially if you're accountable for something, you know, you don't want to send it to somebody else. And then if they mess it up, then you're, you know, in trouble type of thing.
But what I have found is that as a leader, you really need to identify and prioritize what are the most essential tasks that you need to do? What are the tasks that you need to be as an effective leader that make the biggest impact? You know, so what are those essential tasks that you need to do? And then what are some of those what would be considered nonessential tasks?
They still need to be done, but whether you do it or someone else, they're less essential. And so when you would identify those priorities of what you need to do, and then what are what your purpose or core values, then you can kind of see some of those things that maybe you could delegate to someone else. And I always say when you're going to delegate, if it's hard for you to start kind of small, give them something small to do and then begin to build that trust.
Continue to mentor and guide them and then give them something a little bigger. It's not only for them, but for you, you know, because you begin to feel more comfortable with what you're doing. I started working part time a couple years ago, which meant I needed to delegate, you know, tasks to my leadership team. And I remember one of the things I did was, put one of my leadership team in charge of the team meetings that we have every month.
And the one thing that I discovered is sometimes it's hard because they do it differently. Oh dear. But I always remind myself, what's the outcome? You know, if the outcome is what you want, does it really matter the journey or the steps or the tasks they take to get there and is different necessarily bad? No. Sometimes different is actually better, but you have to let go of what you think's the best or you know, and I found that oftentimes by letting go and letting them really flourish and rise up, that some really great things happen.
And it also, you know, freed up time for me to spend on some other things. And so maybe if you're a child care center director and you think you have having advance, put some teachers or family volunteers in charge of those events, think about different things that you can do. If you're spending your morning addressing email and that exhausts you, then maybe just even thinking about the time you're doing something.
If you have the most energy in the morning, do the most important task, then and then do the less essential ones, like read your emails, maybe in the afternoon. So think about even adjusting the intensity of what you're doing. So if you need to do, for example, evaluations for students or staff, oftentimes maybe you have this expectation I'm going to get them all done in a week.
Just go and get them done. But that causes you a lot of stress. And if you adjust the intensity and say, okay, instead I'm going to do them over 2 or 3 weeks, then all of a sudden you can still do those other things, and it's not as intense thinking about your support network, you know, that can help you too.
And being able to trust and rely on those other people and thinking, you know, if I were sick and out, these other people would be doing the tasks, so why can't I just trust them to do it all the time? And so again, focus on what's the most essential. I know. One director determined that the most important thing to her was to build relationships.
So every morning she would spend time and she would engage with the family. She would go visit the classroom. She would spend time with the children, she would talk to the staff. And what she found out is that by doing that at the very beginning, there were less problems throughout the day. So she was putting out less fires because the staff knew she's going to check within, check with me, and so I can address whatever I need with her.
Then, you know, the families felt welcome and secure. The children did were more happy about being there and that more positive environment. And so some of those other things kind of disappeared. You can also lighten your load by just even increasing your abilities, you know, is there an app or a program or, you know, something that are some skills that you can gain so that you can do things in a more efficient manner?
So there are a lot of things that you can do. Also, just even having that joyful environment can help you feel lighter. So that can lighten your load too. It may not change what you're doing, but if you feel better when you're doing it, it almost makes it go better.
Emily Garman: When I clean my office, I feel joyful. I mean, I don't enjoy doing it and I put it off, but when I do it, it feels so good to work in my space and I can see my pictures and it's much more joyful. Speaking of what is your favorite act of self-care? What is your favorite thing to do to to make sure you're taking care of yourself?
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well, I like to kind of in the evening, relax. And my husband and I, we we play games together. We like to play different games and that that's just a joyful time for us where we can just relax and enjoy each other's company. I also like to watch movies occasionally. You know, that's a kind of a fun thing to do with self-care.
I like to dress for joy. That's one thing I do for self-care. So you'll notice I'm wearing purple. Purple's my favorite color if I wear my favorite color and some fun jewelry, I mean, that is that's one thing I do for self-care that it brings me joy. And I also surround myself with things that I enjoy and that brings me joy.
And that's another way that I do self-care. Talking to my friends on the phone, that's another way that I it it boosts my spirit as well.
Emily Garman: I think with our phones and things, we have, you know, we tend to take our work home with us. So having that time, it's just you and your husband. You're playing games, watching a movie. Whatever it is, you're recharging. So that you can go into work the next day more joyful and have the bandwidth for it. But we have to intentionally separate that. Sometimes.
Teresa Byington, EdD: Absolutely. I like to play the piano, too. That's also, you know, music. Music can be very joyful or light a candle with a favorite scent and, you know, just smells can make things very joyful as well.
Emily Garman: I think you really do inspire joy in people, too, because I remember at the NAEYC conference this fall when you you were walking up to our booth after after one of your sessions. I mean, there were people literally screaming when they saw you. They were so excited to see you, get to meet you. So, I would encourage any of our listeners, if you have the chance to see Theresa Byington speak live, it's quite an experience.
Teresa Byington, EdD: Well we usually dress up and plays, which is fun. We did an Indiana Jones theme like 3 or 4 years ago, and I still have people that come up to me and say, remember when you did that training with the Indiana Jones theme? And we had those jams and, you know, they talk about different things we did, but we do.
We like to create and wear things that are joyful and just be joyful and set up a joyful environment. At the last NAEYC conference, we did a fun thing with polka dots and joy and different things, and someone walked into our room and we had, you know, the wait, this was a room with 480 people, and we had things on all the different tables, and somehow some person walked in and said, the second I walked in the room, I thought, this is the place I want to be because I felt joyful.
Emily Garman: I still have the little sticker that you gave me that day. I have it right here. I have one that's actually on my desk. I stuck it on there.
Teresa Byington, EdD: I love it.
Emily Garman: But people remember when you tell stories and when you have fun, even if they seem really cheesy, they're they're really fun. And people remember and remember that stuff. So true. Well, Teresa, it's really nice to have a chance to talk to you about your book, Find the Joyful Leader within, and you have a couple of other books with Gryphon House as well.
But we're talking about joy today, and you've given us a lot of great tips, and I hope everybody goes and checks out the book and brings that home to their staff. And I also think we should do a book club. We'll talk more about that.
Teresa Byington: Sounds great.
Emily Garman: Thank you for joining us on Early Childhood Chapters. I hope today's conversation with Teresa Byington inspired you to bring more joy into your leadership and self-care practices. Her book, Find the Joyful Leader Within, offers practical tools to create a more positive work environment for yourself and your team. If you're ready to take the next step, grab a copy today and start your own journey toward joyful leadership.
Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and follow Griffin House on social media. We'd love to hear how you're spreading joy this month.
Until next time, keep choosing joy and thanks for listening.
