Joy isn’t a Luxury: It’s a Leadership Practice

As leaders operating in a hyper-hustle culture that rewards constant motion and relentless output, most of us are conditioned to equate worth with productivity and joy with achievement. A recent conversation at my Neythri salon made me pause and reflect more deeply and ask: What if joy is not indulgence, but essential leadership infrastructure, an important muscle we need to develop?

As I reflected, I realized that for much of my life, I have subconsciously treated joy as something transactional - a reward after the work was done, when goals were met, the responsibilities fulfilled. Like many peers I know, I learned to operate in service, in urgency, in constant motion. Then came 2023, a pivotal year that fundamentally reshaped how I approach life, people, and work. The year began on an incredible high: planning and celebrating the wedding of our first-born. The euphoria of gathering family and friends, the meticulous planning of every detail, and the mosaic of colors, song, dance, laughter, and food. The entire experience felt fairytale-like and magical. Pure joy in its most exuberant form. 

But just a few short months later, life shifted dramatically as we experienced one of the toughest times our family had endured, navigating a serious health challenge with our second daughter. In those moments, joy took on a very different meaning. It was no longer about celebration or achievement. It became about survival, resilience, and emotional oxygen. It showed up through extraordinary acts of human kindness, close friends and well-wishers calling almost daily to check in, warm meals quietly left outside our front door by people I never even got to thank, friends taking turns spending time with our daughter so my husband and I could step out for a short walk to breathe, and countless people opening their networks to connect us with medical experts and resources. In the midst of fear and uncertainty, those gestures became lifelines and reminders that we were held, supported, and not alone. This experience fundamentally reshaped how I view joy: not as indulgence, but as resilience. Not as escape, but as sustenance.

Since then, I’ve become intentional about architecting joy into my daily life, designing space for beauty, stillness, connection, and presence. Not perfectly but deliberately. Because when life inevitably becomes hard, as it does for all of us, joy becomes the emotional infrastructure that carries us through. For ambitious leaders especially, this feels deeply important. We are often conditioned to normalize exhaustion, self-sacrifice, and relentless output. We learn to equate worth with productivity and impact. But over time, this model is not sustainable for ourselves, our families, or the people we lead. Choosing joy becomes an act of quiet resistance. A way of reclaiming wholeness. A leadership practice rooted in humanity rather than hustle.

As I reflected on this topic over the last few days, one idea repeatedly resonated - Create your own “Joy Board”. Just as we curate boards of advisors for professional growth, we should intentionally build a circle of people, practices, and spaces that nourish our emotional and creative selves — those who spark laughter, honesty, perspective, play, and grounding. A Joy Board isn’t about productivity. It’s about vitality. And vitality fuels clarity, courage, and better leadership.

A few reflections I’m carrying forward:

Joy requires agency. We must intentionally architect it. Designing space for joy in our homes, calendars, and relationships is an important form of self-leadership.

Small, intentional rituals matter more than grand gestures. Walking our neighborhood in the crisp Bay Area winter air with my husband discussing our ideas, spending an unhurried Sunday on the grass overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge with our older daughter and son-in-law, or a brief FaceTime call with our younger one, simply knowing she’s okay bring me deeper joy than any luxury escape.

When leaders model joy, we create healthier cultures for everyone around us.

Joy doesn’t eliminate hardship. But it gives us the strength, clarity, and grounding to walk through it and most times even grow because of it.

And this is why spaces like Neythri salons matter so deeply to me. They create room for authentic connection, thoughtful dialogue, and collective reflection, the kind that nourishes both leadership and life. If this resonates, I invite you to explore and join our community at Neythri.org.

Author Bio Mythili’s 25+ years of experience spans R&D, product management and general management in tech companies as well as nonprofit organizations. Previously, Mythili has served as CEO for startups in technology & event management, and has also led regional operations for the U.S. India Business Council and the American India Foundation. Earlier in her career, Mythili spent several years in research and product management at IBM Research Labs, AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent, eVoice and Palmsource. She is an active angel investor and primarily invests in women entrepreneurs and is an independent board advisor to early stage startups. Mythili serves on the Regional Board of Room to Read, is a mentor for the Duke Technology Scholars program, and a Global Advisor for How Women Lead. She has a MS degree in Physics from Texas Tech University and an Executive MBA jointly offered through the AT&T School of Business & The Wharton School.