Leading With Humor (Seriously)
Humor in leadership is serious business.
I don’t mean that the boss also has to be a standup comedian.
I do mean that humor, one of the most valuable and relatable skills humans possess, is essential to great leadership.
“Leadership” is such a large umbrella, so let me lay it out…
If you’re in a position to share your ideas with other people, and influence the path of their tasks, their roles and/or their lives, congratulations, you’re a leader! It might not come with a title or an official mandate, but there it is.
For years I’ve extolled the value of humor in personal and professional development. I know that people enjoy the time they’ve spent in conference rooms or classrooms with me and that’s a big deal - it’s important to me. I want participants in my learning events to not only walk away with great information, but also a sense of enjoyment and of time well and warmly spent. I cultivate that feeling and set the tone at the outset of every event. I use humor.
Humor is an excellent way to break the ice with folks. It creates belonging and provides an opportunity to share perspectives. When we can laugh at ourselves - our mistakes or an understanding that something we previously had believed was incorrect, and we share this with our teams, we become more than “other.” We are relatable and accessible. We’re at our most human.
In their fantastic TED Talk, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, Stanford Business School professors teaching a class on humor in leadership, posit that great leaders take humor seriously. Effectively using humor means that leaders don’t punch down, aren’t cruel in their jokes or observations, and don’t walk around spouting one-liners. In their research, they have found that leaders with a good sense of humor are seen as 27% more motivating.
Additionally, there are academic studies that show that humor can help raise information retention. Humor is “sticky.” It’s memorable, so it’s incredibly helpful if you’re trying to share new information. If you can find a way to “share the funny” or tell a humorous story related to the information, you’ll find that it helps your team walk away with a better understanding. With that understanding, we’ve created more cohesive, more profitable teams.
In a world full of dumpster fires, a leader who can authentically and sensitively find the humor in a dark time, is someone who sees other people as more than titles, functions and transactions. And because we’re human, we respond to that humor in a way that helps bond us.
You don’t have to be a “funny person” to cultivate humor in your leadership style. You can choose to begin looking for the lighter moments. You can find the humor in your own mistakes and share that with your teams. Humor doesn’t have to be a joke. It’s storytelling. It’s laughing at our own foibles and gaffs. It’s choosing to live on the edge of a smile. Great leaders know that humor gives them a way to talk to people, and communicating well with the people we lead is the most important part of any leader’s job.
LB Adams is the CEO of Practical Dramatics, LLC , a TedX speaker & emcee, author and communication strategies consultant.