Taking the pulse of employed and hope-to-be employed workers finds continued pay and benefit cuts, consistent organizational changes, and general fear of economic stability. – Based
on economic analysis from government officials, the recession ended in June
2009, but don’t tell that to folks with or without a full-time job right now.
Worker and would-be worker sentiment is lousy.
Workers
have seen benefits reduced, continued layoffs, and pay and benefit cuts, and
ar…
IT managers see phishing spam targeting the workplace in greater numbers than social networking sites, such as Twitter or Facebook. – As a JavaScript exploit wreaked havoc on
Twitter.com on the morning of Sept. 21, a survey of small business IT managers
revealed spam as the primary security threat to business networks.
Despite the increasing number of malware attacks originating from social
networking sites like Facebook, MyS…
Humor and laughter provide so many rewards. Studies have shown 20 seconds of laughter yield the same benefits as 3 minutes of hard rowing. A Robert Half International study reported 84% of executives believe a worker with a good sense of humor does a better job. Incorporating humor more effectively in the workplace allows you to defuse difficult situations, reduce stress, create attention for new ideas, build rapport, and be a more approachable and memorable leader.
With those benefits, it behooves you to hone your workplace comedic skills. So in the tradition of David Letterman, here are the top 10 ways to more effectively lead with humor!
#10. Look for Joy in Life
An important step is continually looking for joy throughout your life. This happens in a variety of ways:
#9. Learn What Makes You Laugh
If you’re trying to laugh 40 times daily, it’s important to know what makes you laugh and have ready access to laugh-provokers. Figure out 107 things which make you laugh. Unrealistic? Hardly! Why 107? Because 107 is funnier than 100! Here’s a recipe for listing what makes you laugh by simply identifying:
Collect & save these humor starters in a “Smile File” when you quickly need a laugh or comedic inspiration.
#8. Use Your Own Comedic Material
Personal experiences are the most genuine humor sources for effective leadership. Look for humor in situations from your own life:
When turning personal situations into comedic material, remember lessons learned from a childhood humor staple: Knock-Knock Jokes. These simple jokes work because the knock-knock structure highlights familiar situations, uses only essential words and phrases, and clearly signals a laughing opportunity. They also demonstrate how humor springs from surprise. The laughs come from not knowing who or what exactly is behind the door based on the initial response to “Who’s there?”
#7. Adapt Somebody Else’s Material
Beyond your own experiences, there’s a tradition of “borrowing & adapting” (I didn’t say stealing) funny stuff from others. That’s why old-time comedian Milton Berle was called the “Thief of Bad Gags.â€
Part of borrowing successfully is using easily accessible humor sources in ways many don’t consider. Beyond simply Googling “funny” in front of quotes, one-liners, definitions, pictures, or videos, here are two other common sources you can adapt:
#6. Understand Your Audience
Using humor in a leadership position requires understanding boundaries on its proper use. It all starts with really understanding your audience by:
In case you’re contemplating using ad lib humor, completely knowing your audience is even more vital. Ad-libs have the potential for going horribly wrong because audience sensibilities have been misjudged. It’s very beneficial to actually plan and rehearse ad libs. It may sound odd, but identify common work situations you encounter and think through what usually goes wrong or provides a source for potential humor. Work out some “safe” funny comebacks to use as “planned” ad libs.
#5. Know the Rules and Boundaries
There are blatant humor no-no’s in the workplace which are quite acceptable for an onstage comedian. At work, avoid harmful practical jokes or pranks, heavily sarcastic comments, and humor rooted in religious, sexual, ethnic, or racial themes. Think you know your work setting well enough to tread on this dangerous ground? Here’s some advice: DON’T. The way questionable humor will be perceived by a workplace audience is too much of an unknown to take big risks when your career is at stake.
Use this checkpoint to actually see if your intended workplace humor is SAFE. To pass the SAFE test, all of these statements need to be true regarding your joke, comment, or image:
With even a hint of one false answer, dramatically modify your idea or better yet, abandon it and start over.
#4. Get over Yourself
Effective leaders don’t take themselves too seriously. They’re comfortable laughing at themselves and letting others be funny as well. Leaders should become adept at appropriately using self-deprecating humor, i.e., self-directed humor downplaying your own talents, stature, or accomplishments
You don’t want to use self-deprecating humor on simply any topic, however. It’s most effectively & appropriately used in:
Remember – when trying to borrow someone else’s self-deprecating humor, you need to share that person’s perspective & situation. If not, it’s simply deprecating! I once heard a decidedly non-technical Marketing VP call out “data geeks” in the audience. While that’s what they called themselves, she wasn’t a part of their group, and her comment, intended to build affiliation, fell completely flat.
#3. Need Humor Ideas? Just Look Around
The workplace is filled with situations lending themselves to comedy. Humor springs from exaggeration, wordplay, misunderstandings, ambiguity, contradictions, paradoxes, pain, and inconsistencies. If you work in any type of business or organizational setting, there are plenty of these situations to go around!
As a leader, it’s your role to use the proper opptunities to encourage and employ humor successfully by ensuring that:
#2. Surround Yourself with Joy
If you’re looking for more joy and levity in leadership, surround yourself with joyful people. These are people who are funny, easily spur laughter, and routinely cheer people up through their presence.
Cultivate relationships with these types of people. Spend time with them, learn from their successful uses of humor, and emulate elements of their approaches that work for you.
Beyond basking in the joy these people create, select 3 or 4 of them to be an informal comedy team. As your comedy team, solicit their opinions to help you generate and refine humor ideas. They can also provide perspectives on potentially questionable humor material that makes it through the SAFE test, but still feels like it might not be right for a workplace audience.
#1. Dive into the Fun
Ultimately, the most important part of successfully using humor as a leader is actually sharing it in the workplace. Here are a few final tips to keep in mind:
Mike Brown leads The Brainzooming Group, helping organizations succeed more rapidly by expanding their strategic options and efficiently implementing innovative plans. He authors the Brainzoomingâ„¢ blog, shares innovation ideas on Twitter, and wrote the ebook “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation.†He’s also a frequent keynote presenter.
Do you have any friends or colleagues who are negative? If so, you’ll know they aren’t the most enjoyable people to be around. Negative people can be real downers in any conversation. No matter what you say, they have a way of spinning things in a negative direction. Some negative people can be so negative that it feels draining just being around them.
I’ve dealt with a fair share of negative people in my life. When I was in junior college, I was basically surrounded by a college population of negative students and teachers. My school wasn’t the best of the lot, so most people inside were disgruntled by virtue of being there. While I was initially taken aback by negativity of the people, I eventually learned to manage it and channel it into conscious action.
Today, I deal with negativity on-and-off in my personal development work, especially if there are readers or coaching clients in distress. Rather than be affected by others’ negative energy, I’m now able to consciously deal with it. Here, I’ll share with you 9 tips to deal with negative people in your life:
One of the most important things I learned is not to debate with a negative person. A negative person likely has very staunch views and isn’t going to change that just because of what you said. Whatever you say, he/she can find 10 different reasons to back up his/her viewpoint. The discussion will just swirl into more negativity, and you pull yourself down in the process. You can give constructive comments, and if the person rebutts with no signs of backing down, don’t engage further.
Have you ever been annoyed by something before, then have someone tell you to “relax”? How did you feel? Did you relax as the person suggested or did you feel even more worked up?
From my experience, people who are negative (or upset for that matter) benefit more from an empathetic ear than suggestions/solutions on what he/she should do. By helping them to address their emotions, the solutions will automatically come to them (it’s always been inside them anyway).
Some people complain as a way of crying for help. They may not be conscious of it though, so their comments come across as complaints rather than requests. Take the onus to lend a helping hand. Just a simple “Are you okay?” or “Is there anything I can do to help you?” can do wonders.
Some negative people are triggered by certain topics. Take for example: One of my friends sinks into a self-victimizing mode whenever we talk about his work. No matter what I say (or don’t say), he’ll keep complaining once we talk about work.
Our 1st instinct with negative people should be to help bring them to a more positive place (i.e. steps #2 and #3). But if it’s apparent the person is stuck in his/her negativity, the unhappiness may be too deeply rooted to address in a one-off conversation, or for you to help him/her unravel it. Bring in a new topic to lighten the mood. Simple things like new movies, daily occurrences, common friends, make for light conversation. Keep it to areas the person feels positive towards.
One way to help the negative person “get it” is to ignore the negative comments. If he/she goes into a negative swirl, ignore or give a simple “I see” or “Ok” reply. On the other hand, when he/she is being positive, reply in affirmation and enthusiasm. Do this often and soon he/she will know positivity pays off. He/she will adjust to be more positive accordingly.
Negative people aren’t just negative to others. They’re also negative to themselves. If you already feel negative around them, imagine how they must feel all the time. What are the things the person is good at? What do you like about the person? Recognize the positive things and praise him/her for it. He/she will be surprised at first and might reject the compliment, but on the inside he/she will feel positive about it. That’s the first seed of positivity you’re planting in him/her and it’ll bloom in the long-term.
Having someone else in the conversation works wonders in easing the load. In a 1-1 communication, all the negativity will be directed towards you. With someone else in the conversation, you don’t have to bear the full brunt of the negativity. This way you can focus more on doing steps #1 (Empathizing) and #2 (Helping the person).
Whether the person is negative or not, ultimately you’re the one who is perceiving the person is negative. When you recognize that, actually the negativity is the product of your lens. Take responsibility for your perceptions. For every trait, you can interpret it in a positive and a negative manner. Learn to see the goodness of the person than the negative. It may be tough initially, but once you cultivate the skill, it becomes second nature.
If all else fails, reduce contact with them or avoid them altogether. If it’s a good friend, let him/her know of the severity of the issue and work it out where possible. It’s not healthy to spend too much time with people who drain you. Your time is precious, so spend it with people who have positive effects on you.
Along the lines of developing better people skills and communication skills, be sure to check out the following related articles:
Are any of the 9 tips useful for you? Do you have any personal experiences on how to deal with negative people? Feel free to share in the comments area.
I’m Celes and I write at The
Personal Excellence Blog on how to achieve our highest potential
and live our best life. Get my free ebook 101
Things To Do Before You Die by joining my free
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The adoption and usage of Enterprise 2.0 applications in the workplace is growing at astronomical rates. While there is ample proof of the business benefits of their use, there continue to be major security and compliance risks associated with them. It is time for IT executives to demonstrate leadership and set smart policies. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Lee Klarich explains how IT executives can smartly and safely enable Enterprise 2.0 applications in their organization.
– Enterprise
2.0 applications have become the poster children of a flat world. They
provide rapid and agile collaboration, sharing and information
integration capabilities never seen before in enterprises. But, unlike
enterprise applications, Enterprise 2.0 applications weren’t born in
the enterp…
In high school, didn’t a part of you always wonder how the cool kids did it? Popularity remained an enigmatic aspect of human existence that ceased to be relevant once we threw our caps in the air…right?
There are scores of research studies on popularity in schools, and most have indicated that popular children are viewed as better students and make and maintain friendships more easily. In 2009, however, organizational psychologists Timothy Judge and B.A. Scott at the University of Florida demonstrated that popularity plays a significant role on success in the workplace. They defined popularity as being “accepted by one’s peers†and conceptualized it as a function of both an employee’s personality and the situational position within his group. As a result of studying two samples of employee populations, professors Judge and Scott reported that co-workers reliably agreed about who was popular on their team – and who wasn’t. Co-workers also felt that an employee’s popularity was associated with receiving more favorable treatment at work. Why? Judge and Scott suggest that popular employees are rewarding to interact with for both emotional and instrumental reasons. In addition to being “fun to be with,†popular individuals are thought to increase co-worker status by association and make it easier to get things done.
Meg Cabot just wrote a book for teens called How to Be Popular, but rest assured, I’m not going to make you read it. Instead, here are some painless tips for increasing your popularity on the office social circuit.
Alexandra Levit’s goal is to help people find meaningful jobs – quickly and simply – and to succeed beyond measure once they get there. If you’re struggling with what to do with your career in the New Year, visit www.newjobnewyou.com for free guidance and resources.
Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, along with blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and other messaging and collaboration tools, are finding their way into the workplace as enterprise applications. Analysts from Nielsen Norman, IDC and Gilbane say front-line workers are leading the charge, forcing senior management to go with the flow or stem the tide. The Facebook Generation wants to network with colleagues to communicate and collaborate.
–
Despite hype surrounding the use of wikis, blogs, social
networks and other tools in the workplace, social software in businesses is
still more of a grassroots effort led by frontline users than it is a
company-wide collaboration practice, according to a new Nielsen Norman Group
st…
In China, a university degree has long been seen as a ticket away from the grim production lines and workplace abuse of its boomtown factories, but some graduates now face a fate that belies their investment of time and money. The suicide of Sun Danyong, a worker at contract cellpone maker
Although real-time document collaboration is necessary in the workplace, it is often difficult to achieve because of the lack of appropriate tools. Effective real-time document collaboration requires immediate and spontaneous group interaction to evoke and refine new ideas. Here, Knowledge Center contributor John Mohan explains why Web meeting tools are not viable solutions for real-time document collaboration, and why a many-to-many architecture solution can better facilitate real-time document collaboration in your organization.
– Collaboration is a vague and all-encompassing term that needs to be further defined for the purpose of this discussion. Before proceeding, I would like to replace collaboration with the term, document collaboration, which is defined as the ability to present or share documents in real time while sim…
Although real-time document collaboration is necessary in the workplace, it is often difficult to achieve because of the lack of appropriate tools. Effective real-time document collaboration requires immediate and spontaneous group interaction to evoke and refine new ideas. Here, Knowledge Center contributor John Mohan explains why Web meeting tools are not viable solutions for real-time document collaboration, and why a many-to-many architecture solution can better facilitate real-time document collaboration in your organization.
– Collaboration is a vague and all-encompassing term that needs to be further defined for the purpose of this discussion. Before proceeding, I would like to replace collaboration with the term, document collaboration, which is defined as the ability to present or share documents in real time while sim…
