"Did you hear the one about the boss who got a bigger bonus because he had a great sense of humour?"
You probably haven't heard this one manufacture the rounds at the water cooler, because it's not a joke. It's literally one finding from a study by researcher Fabio Sala-a consultant with the Hay Group's McClelland Centre for research and Innovation-who found a confident correlation between the size of executives' bonuses and their use of humour. The study also found that outstanding executives use humour more than twice as often as the so-called mean executives.
Funny Jokes One Liners
Studies like this point to a growing consensus that if you are serious about your career, then sometimes it pays to not be serious. At least, not too serious. Not when a healthy sense of humour can help you carry on stress, spark creativity, build relationships, chronicle more effectively, and stand out from the herd (not to mention earn you a bigger bonus).
This may explain why some workplaces even hire for a sense of humour, and why, if you're in the job market, you may want to hone your humour skills. In fact, a inspect of 737 Ceo's by Hodge Cronin and company found that a whopping 98% of them would rather hire someone with a good sense of humour than someone with a more serious demeanor.
Barry Williams, the boss of Barney's Motel ("Rooms So Clean Even Our Mothers Are Proud!"), in Brandon, Manitoba, believes in the power of humour. So much so, that while a wing of his motel was burning to the ground, Williams changed his highway promotional sign to read: "Great Deal on Non-Smoking Rooms!"
Williams' belief in humour is reflected in his help-wanted ads: "You Love to clean... On weekends... For No wages... What, are you crazy? Why are you doing this for free when you could be manufacture large coin at our place?"
Ads like these, Williams suggests, are not only more likely to get read, they also send the message that Barney's Motel is a dissimilar kind of place to work, and that overly serious candidates need not apply.
Known for their confident use of humour both internally and with their customers, WestJet Airlines also considers attitude in their employee choice process: to become a "Westjetter" it helps to demonstrate a confident use of humour during the hiring process.
Even Nasa has publicly stated that when the space division recruits time to come astronauts one of the personality traits they will be finding for is humour, believing that candidates who demonstrate a sense of humour are more flexible, more creative and best able to deal with stress. (Of course, if you're flying to Mars for 17 years with only one other crew member to keep you company, a good sense of humour might just be a lifesaver).
Once your foot is in the door, a well-flexed funny bone can also help maintain a successful career. Humour is an leading public lubricant, bonding tool and trust builder. A healthy sense of humour is also one of the most efficient stress busters available, helping citizen distance themselves from their workplace stressors, maintain a more balanced perspective and overcome obstacles. Moreover, humour is one of the best catalysts for creative thinking, which makes sense, given that both humour and creativity are about combining unrelated ideas and finding at something in a new and dissimilar light. All these benefits are likely why a inspect by Robert Half International found that 84% of the Ceo's and
H.R. Directors believe citizen with a good sense of humour do a best job.
And as the Sala study points out, a sense of humour is even becoming an significant skill for senior executives. As humorist Bob Ross observed, "A leader without a sense of humour is like a lawn mower at a cemetery-they both have lots of citizen underneath them, but no one is paying them any attention."
Senior executives set the tone for an entire workplace, and one who demonstrates a healthy sense of humour can create an environment of trust and openness. In this respect, workplace humour and laughter also serve as a beneficial barometer-an indicator of sorts-as to just how healthy and well-functioning a team or workplace is. After all, if there is a lot of laughter colse to the office, chances are citizen are getting along with each other, extremely motivated, and working in a confident and supportive atmosphere. (And if you're mental this is a sign that citizen are slacking off and not getting their work done, think again. Any workplace productivity studies suggest that fun is a key component of success, if only for the uncomplicated suspect that citizen accomplish best when they are enjoying themselves.)
So does all this suggest you need to sign up for a stand-up comedy class or turn into the office joker? Not at all. Demonstrating a healthy sense of humour in the workplace is rarely about telling jokes, and it literally isn't about becoming the class clown. In fact, misusing humour is also a terrific way to get yourself noticed (and not in a good way).
They key is to institution "safe humour": humour that builds rather than divides relationships, humour that laughs with people, not at people. For as much as humour can be a beneficial vocation skill, we all learn at an early age that humour is also a marvelous weapon-a favourite of schoolyard bullies. Therefore, offensive humour-such as sexist or racist jokes-is strictly off-limits during work hours. Sarcastic or bullying humour can also be career-damaging, and many practical jokes have resulted in lawsuits (as in the case of the employee who brought laxative-filled brownies to the office) or outright dismissal.
So what is safe, particularly in this current climate of political correctness? The first rule of safe humour is to take your job seriously, but not yourself. Learn to laugh at your own foibles and the small things that are beyond your control, like the morning traffic jam, that receding hairline, or jammed photocopier. WestJet Airlines, known for creating some in-flight turbulence with their groan-inducing one-liners, keeps their humour safe by poking fun at flight attendants or pilots.
A word of caution, however: don't laugh too often at those things that are significant to your success. Laughing at yourself when you make a boneheaded blunder is healthy, but if you repeatedly poke fun at your own core competencies, then sooner or later folks might start believing you. Which is why WestJet pilots may joke about their hair or egos, but never about their capability to fly a plane (for this, passengers are eternally grateful).
Practicing smart humour also means keeping the humour relevant. Relevant humour-topics associated to your office or profession-will have the many impact and is the best kind of humour for creating a sense of shared history and teamwork in a workplace.
Studies on the use of humour in such dry subjects as university level calculus showed that when the instructors incorporated humour that associated to the field at hand, also known as "concept humour," their credibility increased.
Practicing relevant humour in enterprise presentations keeps the talk on topic, helps citizen hold the facts longer and demonstrates that you know the field so well you are able to play colse to with it. And if your audience doesn't get the humour, nothing is lost because by manufacture the humour relevant you've still delivered your message. Smart humour can not only help you get your point across, ideally, it gets citizen finding at your topic in a new way.
Knowing your audience, either it's one or 1,000, is essential. Everyone's sense of humour is different, so it's leading to respect those differences in a work setting. dissimilar cultures also have very dissimilar sensibilities. In Japan, for example, any humour that brings even little attention to someone else someone is thought about not just unfunny, but a public taboo.
Finally, the key to preventing terminal professionalism (symptoms contain too many bad hair days, a enduringly furrowed brow, strained relationships, and a stalled career) is to give yourself permission to just be yourself and tap into what is conception to be the most human characteristic of all, our sense of humour.
And if someone says, "You can't be serious!," tell them they're literally right.
Then tell them the one about the executive who got the bigger bonus...
Flexing Your Funny Bone
Want to bring more humour into your work life and fine-tune your humour sense? Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
- Read more humour, watch more humour, but be analytical. What literally makes it funny?
- Seek out unintentional or "accidental" humour, such as signs that say things like "Ears Pierced While You Wait" (what's the alternative?) or "Bras Half Off!" (which half?)
- Start a humour file or journal to acquire humorous material (work-related jokes, funny bloopers, alternative definitions to workplace terms or acronyms etc.) and your funny ideas about work.
- Look for simple, safe opportunities to slip some humour into the mix, such as a meeting program or small presentation.
- Write work-related Top 10 lists. Keep them short and snappy and don't worry about being overly funny to start with, just start writing.
- Set up a humour bulletin board in your office.
- Bring in a humour first aid kit to help you tap into your sense of humour, stockpiling it with items that will make you laugh in the face of stress.
- Share funny stories about how you started in the enterprise or about early mistakes you made. They'll help you appear more humble, confident and human.
- Be curious, adopt a child's mindset and ask a lot of questions: Why do people...? Why do we never...? Why is it that...? What would happen if...?"
Laughing in the Face of Stress
- Reward yourself: attach a fun reward to your tasteless everyday stressors. For example, every time you suffer through the commute from hell, treat yourself to a special lunch.
- Re-frame the situation: mentally play colse to with a situation to find something funny in it by exaggerating wildly, putting yourself in someone else's shoes, finding at it from the opposite perspective or request yourself how the situation could be worse.
- Reflect. Visit your "happy place" by recalling a funny event from your life.
- Relax. Take a five-minute humour break to mentally floss away your anxiety.
- Read a funny book. Pull out a photo of your dog dressed in a nightgown. Or use a laugh-line: phone a friend and give them one little to make you laugh.
- Remember, when it comes to managing your own stress, the only someone you need to worry about amusing, is yourself.
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