What is the culture at your office like? Do people feel like they can, and should, work together or is everyone out for themselves? Do people work hard and play hard, or are they leaning too far towards one or the other? Hiring a funny keynote speaker might be the answer for you and your employees.
In some industries, there is a tendency for people to behave in a juvenile way. The tech industry is known for hazing, ‘tough’ culture and in some cases a little too much joking around. It’s also known as an industry where “presenteeism” is important, and putting in long hours can be prided over being productive. The same is true to an extent in finance and even in medicine – the emphasis is on working hard, on ‘being busy,’ and on keeping your mind on the end goal.
Those qualities can be commendable, but sometimes it’s important to be able to laugh at yourself, and with yourself. When used correctly – at the right time and in the right context, humor can boost morale, support teamwork, and improve the overall culture at the office.
Humor Helps Us Deal With Stress
Stress can have a massive effect on people – not only on their morale but also on their physical health. Stress can lead to burnout, and it can reduce your employee’s motivation. Stress can also reduce a person’s self-esteem, which will make them less effective and will likely have an impact on their productivity. If you want your staff to take appropriate risks, to be daring, and to challenge themselves in ways that will make the company better, then you need to make sure that they feel comfortable challenging themselves.
Humor Makes People Like Each Other
Most of us spend around half of our day, if not more, at work – so that time needs to be fun. If you’re constantly talking about nothing more than getting things done, then people are going to find you stressful to be around. Humor is a great way to break the tension, and it can make the working day pass a little more quickly too.
The challenge here is finding humor that is not objectionable, and that is going to smooth over differences, rather than create them. It takes some social skills to ensure that the jokes you make are not misunderstood, or not unintentionally hurtful to a member of the team.
As a manager, it’s your role to create boundaries and to ensure that communication between employees is always open and civil.
Good Leaders Make People Happy
A good leader can find the balance between working efficiently and being the office clown. Laughter by itself doesn’t get anything done, but the laughter that is used to augment a serious point can help to get people on board and get them motivated to work towards a common goal.
It helps if the people on your team have a positive attitude already and are open-minded. You can shape the office culture to an extent, but you can’t control it if your team does not include the right kind of people.
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Adam Christing is a popular Event MC and Funny Motivational Speaker. He is the author of Your Life is a Joke: 12 Ways to Go from Ha Ha to AHA! (For more information go to AdamChristing.com)
