How Can a Sense of Humour at the Workplace Help You Succeed?
Summary: Humour is a great tool that helps lighten the mood, relax the environment, establish the right mindset for innovation, and boost the overall energy at a workplace. Star leaders make sure to encourage a healthy sense of humour to make the work atmosphere better.
Knock, knock, who’s there? Lead!…Lead who? Lead with humor! A delicate balance that takes years to learn is knowing when and how to lighten the atmosphere. Having a sense of humor can enhance your physical and mental well-being, increase your attractiveness, and develop your leadership abilities. So, all the star leaders out there, loosen yourself and let the laughter flow.
When standing trial for his role in the controversial acquisition of SolarCity by Tesla, Elon Musk claimed that he does think he has a sense of humor. Elon Musk, being the largest stakeholder of SolarCity before his own company (Tesla Energy) bought it, was being questioned to prove that he removed himself from the deal to avoid conflicts of interest. He believes his humor gives free publicity to his company which increases its value, claiming, “If we are entertaining people, they would write stories about us and we don’t have to spend on advertising which would reduce the price of our cars.”
You may or may not find his sense of humor of Twitter jokes and cameo appearances funny but you have to agree with his reasoning for it. Humor can be used as a tool to energize your workplace. Apart from spreading positive energy, laughter can even improve your physical health by boosting your immune system[1].
Here are a three reasons why organizations would like to make humor an essential part of employees experience:
Preventing workplace conflicts
Stress Management
The workplace is where you spend a huge amount of your time, every day. If it’s not a fun and happy place to be, then it can get really hard to perform well. Work can get really challenging at times, and days can turn extremely stressful. And if you’ve had a bad day or just a bad meeting, a colleague with a good joke in his pocket can feel like a godsend. Humor provides for the positive energy to carry on with the rest of the day, at any point in time.
Increase Enthusiasm
A dull environment, or working under too strict regulations can put a serious damper on creative thinking, and therefore the productivity of a company. For people to come up with original ideas, have fabulous brainstorming sessions, and think out of the box, the work environment needs to encourage a jovial atmosphere. Healthy humor is what leads to a relaxed mind, better interactions, and finally the enthusiasm to get work done; and get it done in an energized way.
Impact on Leadership
Apart from just spreading positivity around, humour is known to increase work satisfaction and performance in employees while mitigating the detrimental effects of stress and burnout. The use of humour by leaders also improves employees’ satisfaction with work and their perception of their leader and their work performance
[2]. Humour also strengthens relationships within the organisation by helping people socialise and relate to their job
[3]. Humour can be used by managers as a tool of communication to enhance creative thinking and promote a positive organisational culture
[4]. A Robert Half International survey found that 84% of executive leaders feel that people with a good sense of humour perform better at their jobs
[5].Do you still want to lead your group only by taking yourself too seriously?
Would you like to build a workplace environment where creativity is appreciated through humour as well?
3 Immediately Applicable Action Steps
- Make jokes about yourself.
- Laugh at other people’s jokes.
- Consume media with different kinds of humour.
References
1- Bennett, M. P., & Lengacher, C. (2009). Humor and Laughter May Influence Health IV. Humor and Immune Function. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 6(2), 159–164. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nem149
2- Mesmer‐Magnus, J., Glew, D. J., & Viswesvaran, C. (2012). A meta‐analysis of positive humor in the workplace. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(2), 155–190. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941211199554
3- Mak, B. C. N., Liu, Y., & Deneen, C. C. (2012). Humor in the workplace: A regulating and coping mechanism in socialization. Discourse & Communication, 6(2), 163–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481312437445
4- Romero, E., & Cruthirds, K. (2006). The use of humor in the workplace. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 34(3), 18–18. https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2006.261378
5- Robert Half. (2017, March 27). Is a sense of humour in the workplace good for your career? https://www.roberthalf.com.au/blog/
jobseekers/sense-humour-workplace-good-your-career
Authored by Coach Vikram
Vikram is an Executive Presence Coach who supports CXOs and senior leaders to make an impact, influence, and lead with ease. He advises C-level leaders and teams to strengthen business performance through their executive presence and star leadership.
Vikram works closely with Boards and senior leaders to align leadership needs with strategy. His forte is his ability to develop trusted partnerships with senior leaders at some of the most recognized companies in the world. Vikram coaches senior leaders to draw upon their best selves, while growing their business and their leadership capabilities.
Vikram and his team have developed a groundbreaking model of executive presence and an Executive Presence Index (EPI) Assessment, the first frequency based, scientifically validated tool to measure executive presence.
Connect with him if you want practical and immediately applicable strategies to accelerate results, develop your people, and influence others to make a positive difference in your organization.
