Want to be a Better Leader? Be Funny

You don’t have to look far to find advice on how to be a more effective boss. There is a near infinite supply of books and tropes offering their thoughts on how to better engage your team and foster creativity.

Establishing a bond at work used to be easier (not easy, but easier). Water cooler conversations, cocktail parties, holiday gatherings -- these were all social lubricants that let us interact and collaborate with coworkers. Then the pandemic hit – and all of those things abruptly disappeared.

So how can leaders (and coworkers) establish that connection and sense of well-being? The answer could lie in a good knock-knock joke.

Ok, maybe not. But humor is the new management superpower, according to a pair of lecturers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Naomi Bagdonas and Connor Diemand-Yauman study the ties between humor, leadership and business – and say we’re all in need of a good laugh these days.

“Humor is one of the most underappreciated, under-leveraged assets we have in business, especially for leaders,” says Bagdonas. “The reality is that the more technology-mediated our communication becomes, the harder it is to bring our humanity and sense of humor to work. We subconsciously adapt to our medium, and when we’re constantly communicating through technology, it’s easy to sound like a robot. Often, all it takes is a hint of levity to shift a moment, or a relationship, from transactional and generic to relational and authentic.”

Bagdonas and Diemand-Yauman’s research found that leaders that have a good sense of humor are seen as 27% more motivating and admired, and their employees report being 15% more engaged. (It works the other way around also. Some 84% of executives say they believe employees with a sense of humor do a better job.)

Laughter suppresses the release of cortisol, the stress hormone, putting people more at ease. It also unlocks a more creative way of thinking, the pair says, making it an especially valuable leadership tool at any time, much less one where people were feeling disconnected.

“When we laugh with someone, we connect in a powerful way,” says Diemand-Yauman. ”Neurochemically, laughing together gives you more bang for your buck when it comes to interpersonal connection than just about anything else. When we laugh, our brains release the hormone oxytocin, often called the ‘trust hormone,’ which cues us to create an emotional connection and feel more bonded — whether we’re in person or over screens.”

Laughter, it turns out, is like a cocktail for the mind. A good guffaw releases a flood of hormones, including dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins, which make people feel happier, more trusting, and slightly euphoric. And regular laughter can lower stress and give employees an increased perception of control.

While humor has always been a key management tool, the pandemic has underscored the need for wit among supervisors. Leaders that incorporate humor, whether it’s using an in-joke in their background screen or donning surprise Groucho glasses or using levity to shift an uncomfortable moment to a light one, can create a bond with their team whereas others might struggle to do so lately.

“We don’t need more professionalism in our workplaces. Instead, we need more of ourselves, and more human connection — especially as in-person meetings have been replaced by video conferences, more relationships are sustained entirely by email, and so many people are struggling with isolation, loneliness, and personal tragedies,” says Diemand-Yauman.

Of course, happier and more motivated employees are more productive employees. And a manager with a sense of humor can get more out of their team without working them harder. Just be sure that you don’t lean too far into the yuk-yuk realm.

“Playful cultures allow teams to thrive, even (and especially) when the stakes are high and the times are hard,” says Bagdonas. “Of course, we shouldn’t go for funny all the time. That would be exhausting (and counterproductive). But we’ve swung so far in the other direction that our businesses thirst for it — and our team productivity can greatly benefit from it.”

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