The blog will pick a word of the week, to share & explore the selected word. Here’s an expression for the word – humour.
Read Humour, Seriously: Why Humour Is A Secret Weapon In Business & Life. An average four year old laughs as many as three hundred times per day. The average forty year old, by comparison, laughs three hundred times every three months or so. The collective loss of our sense of humour is a serious challenge afflicting people & organisations globally. We may be losing the levity entirely in a sea of bottom lines, slide decks & mind numbing conferences. Our sense of play is repressed by a dizzyingly complex & dynamic professional environment. We go to work leaving our sense of humour & so much more of ourselves, at the door.
Today’s employees yearn for more authentic, inspiring & human leaders. Aspirational, yes, but also flawed. Humour is a powerful leadership strategy to humanise oneself, to break down barriers, to solve challenges, to build trust & balance authority with approachability. The presence of fun or humour in the team interactions predicts more functional communication, higher team performance, both in the moment & over time. Playful cultures allow teams to thrive, even when the stakes are high & the times are tough. President Eisenhower said, “a sense of humour is a part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” Inspirational.
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