The #1 Underrated Leadership Skill for High Performance NGO Teams
Episode 102 •
26th January 2026 • The Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader: Make a Greater Impact by Creating a High Performance Team while Avoiding Stress and Overwhelm • Aid for Aid Workers
What if the leadership skill your burned-out team needs most isn’t more urgency—but more fun?
If you’re leading in high-stakes humanitarian or development work, you’re likely carrying constant pressure, decision fatigue, and the fear that lightness equals irresponsibility—this episode flips that belief and shows how integrating fun into serious work can actually reduce burnout, restore empathy, and help your team perform better under stress.
Learn why fun is a core resilience tool that calms the nervous system and prevents burnout in crisis-driven teams
Discover practical, professional ways to integrate fun directly into daily work without undermining credibility
Unlock more creativity, motivation, and follow-through by turning heavy tasks into engaging, energizing work
Press play now to learn how making work more fun can immediately strengthen your leadership, protect your energy, and help your team thrive under pressure.
Want to know how to lead better? It starts by understanding your leadership style. To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader. Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.
This podcast empowers international development and humanitarian NGO UN leaders to achieve high performance teams, fostering diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing, overcoming burnout and overwhelm, while maximizing impact and productivity.
Transcripts
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Humanitarian and development work involves serious and
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sometimes life-threatening issues.
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Whether you're responding to natural disasters or providing
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shelter to those in desperate need, the emotional toll is real.
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Because this work is so heavy most of us believe our leadership
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style needs to be heavy too.
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But that is a mistake, and that is exactly why this specific
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leadership skill is so important.
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The skill I'm talking about, it's the ability to have fun.
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Hi, my name is Torrey and welcome to the Modern Humanitarian and
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Development Leader podcast.
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So, I know what you're thinking, ' I can't have fun.
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The mission that I work on is so critical'.
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I know I've been there and believe me, it feels real.
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But in my CLEAR Leadership Model, fun isn't a nice-to-have.
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Fun is the resilience engine.
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Just because we are working in serious circumstances doesn't mean
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that we have to be in a serious mood.
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In fact, doing so might be hurting your team.
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Crisis work keeps your nervous system in a threatened state.
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You and your team are stuck in sympathetic nervous system
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fight, flight, or freeze.
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So when that system says no, for too long, three things happen.
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One, decision fatigue increases; two, empathy decreases; and
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three, burnout becomes inevitable.
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So, many leaders that I know might worry, 'Well, if I'm joking, it means
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that I can't take the crisis seriously'.
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Like we can't have both things at once.
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But the reality is the opposite.
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Suppressing your joy doesn't mean that you're gonna be more compassionate.
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It actually leads to emotional shutdown.
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Healthy humor releases cortisol or stress and increases oxytocin or connection.
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It allows you to process intensity without being consumed by it.
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So this applies to everyday work and learning, not just the crisis moments.
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I always tell my students, why does learning have to be so serious?
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It's so interesting how so many of them take the work and learning so seriously.
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They're terrified of getting it wrong.
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And when we do that, we do demotivate ourselves.
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It actually leads us to the opposite of learning, of wanting
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to fail, wanting to give up.
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When we have fun making mistakes, on the other hand, we unlock creativity.
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But here is a critical point that I also want to make, which
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I've also seen again and again.
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The biggest shift that I want you to make today is to stop
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treating fun as a break from work.
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Most leaders think we will be working, working, working on the
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grind now, and then we'll have time for fun at the team dinner later.
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No, that's not what I want you to think here.
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I want you to integrate fun into your work.
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Make fun the way you do work, not what you do after it, or in between.
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So, how do you actually do this without looking unprofessional?
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Ask yourself, 'How can we have fun while we design this project?', for example.
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So here's some ideas that I've come up with and what I've seen others use in
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terms of integrating fun while you're doing, let's say, like a project.
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You can gamify it, so who can come up with the wildest solution to problem X
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in the next five minutes, for example, or change your environment, that always
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helps going to a coffee shop or meeting in the park or taking a walk and thinking
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of, uh, problem solving in that way.
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Add sensory shifts such as playing music during your deep work
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sessions, or even skill building.
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So if you're practicing active listening, for example, make a
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game out of counting how many times you almost interrupted someone.
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This is a secret weapon also for procrastination, because when work feels
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like play, we actually want to start it.
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So there's no downside to having fun, but there are massive downsides
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to a team culture that forbids it.
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So I want you to think as you go through your week, I challenge you
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to think about not just scheduling a fun event, but asking yourself,
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how can I make this difficult task that I have to do right now more fun.
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Alright, until next week.
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Keep evolving.
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Bye for now.
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Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do, or do you let
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them figure it out for themselves?
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Understanding your leadership style is a first step to deciding what's
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working for you and what's not.
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To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz.
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What is your leadership style?
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You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting
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your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.
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Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz.
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Fill out your quiz and click submit.
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So what are you waiting for?
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Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now.
