Research shows that close-knit teams, working in a warm and relaxed environment, are more engaged and more creative. To ensure maximum productivity, it therefore becomes important to bring a touch of humor to your teams on a daily basis to overcome the workload and daily challenges.
Companies are often perceived as serious places where people are not allowed to laugh or make jokes. However, research has proven that a manager with a sense of humor is more motivating (+27%), he is also more admired by its employees. The latter are also more engaged (+15%) and are twice as likely to solve problems requiring creativity.
By using humor, individual and collective performances will be there. Making those around you laugh is proof of empathy and great emotional intelligence, essential qualities for a good manager. Moreover, the simple fact of adding a funny sentence at the end of a commercial negotiation can increase your chances of convincing your customers by 18%.
Why is humor so effective at work
Laughter has the power to create a feeling of closeness and trust between people. The research carried out by Gallup show that one of the biggest factors in employee performance is having a close friend to share moments of joy and laughter with. When we are receptive to a joke, our brain releases neurotransmitters linked to well-being and joy: dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. Their positive effects have been scientifically proven: relief of tension, improvement of blood flow, reduction of stress, etc. This will not only allow you to build strong bonds with your colleagues, but also to stay healthy, while continuing to be productive.
Humor creates strong team cohesion and forges bonds between employees. Laughter has always been a universal way of expressing kind intentions. This applies both in private life and in professional life.
Add humor to your daily work life
Define your humor category
First of all, we must recognize that each of us has our own sense of humor. If you’re worried that you’re not naturally funny, rest assured, everyone will appreciate the jokes, as long as they’re not hurtful or inappropriate. Besides, we all have a particular sense of humor that differs from others. We can isolate four types of humor:
• Stand-up: bold and not afraid to hurt the feelings of others to make colleagues laugh
• Sweetheart: caring, discreet, and uses humor that lightens the atmosphere
• Sniper: sarcastic and master of unexpected jokes
• Magnet: expressive, charismatic and easy to make those around you laugh
Knowing the sense of humor of each of your colleagues will facilitate discussions and encourage moments of humor. This will also allow you to adapt your humor depending on the person you have in front of you.
Be careful not to blur the lines between humor and mockery. Your sarcastic humor will not necessarily be well received by your colleagues. By hurting your colleagues, you risk being perceived as a malicious person and attracting the enmity of others.
Don’t hesitate to be self-deprecating
Laughing at yourself is an essential step in being able to open up to others and laugh with them. This mainly consists of breaking down all rigidities and overcoming your personal blockages. Self-deprecation will allow you to become aware of your faults and accept them fully. Making humor about these aspects of your personality is the greatest proof that you are at total peace with yourself and that you fully accept yourself.
Believe in your jokes
There are no bad jokes as long as they are not hurtful and do not harm your colleagues. Daring to make jokes can increase your self-confidence to the extent that humor brings people together and unblocks problematic situations with a touch of lightness. How you tell jokes is just as important. The more confident you are, the more likely your jokes will be to make you laugh.
If you flop, don’t be hard on yourself. You will probably feel uncomfortable, but remember that even great actors have experienced these moments of solitude. The best thing to do is to play on self-deprecation or follow up with ready-made sentences, recommended by Lionel Bellenger, coach at Ibel and lecturer at HEC Paris:
- “It’s a shame, it was the only funny moment of the presentation! “
- “I followed a course on the art of making people laugh in two modules. I had the first class “Telling a story”, but I missed the second “Making people laugh with a story”. »
- “Hello, SOS Joke? I need your services urgently, your latest joke doesn’t work! »
- “Well now I know why I didn’t choose comedy after high school. »
