When you are in a business suit, you are more likely expected to be uptight and to act professionally. Often, there’s no time for chit-chats and laughter and private jokes. But there are several studies that prove how humor is a key to success in business, both for management and employees.
Increases Your Status
When you are able to show a sense of humor in a professional environment, people around you will see you as being more competent. Humor makes you look clever, witty, and intelligent, and so your colleagues attribute a higher status to you.
Makes You More Persuasive in Negotiations
Studies have shown that humor can be effective at the negotiation table. It makes you more persuasive. When you can tell a joke and share a laugh, the other person feels more relaxed. You gain their trust, and they see you as a friend, and they feel you are worthy of being given a fairer deal.
Increases Power Through Memorability
During meetings, if you can attempt to create appropriate levity, you can catch people’s attention and increase your power through memorability. The brain focuses on fun stuff, and people can remember more when humor is used. Laughter releases dopamine, which is essential in information processing and memory.
Builds Trust
Bosses who know how to make employees laugh create a more relaxed environment, which helps build trust with others. Humor makes you more approachable, which encourages more open communication. You can use your sense of humor to win over and influence people.
Humor humanizes leaders, especially those who can pull off a self-deprecating joke, which helps build a connection with other people, particularly employees.
Boosts Creativity and Innovation
As humor makes people relaxed, they are more inspired and motivated to think creatively, play with ideas, shun their internal critics, and see things differently. In a serious environment, innovation hardly thrives because people don’t feel free to brainstorm and throw ideas that may look silly.
Attract and Retain Top Talent
A good amount of humor and fun can help create a healthy work culture, which is important in attracting and retaining talented employees. Using humor, you increase employee retention rates because people will enjoy working with you.
Good managers know how costly it is for a business to lose good employees. Perceptive executives realize that humor is important in career advancement and that people with a sense of humor tend to do a better job, and relate to others better.
Improves Productivity
Humor relaxes the workplace environment, so employees are more inspired to work. It encourages them to think outside the box, be creative, and be innovative. It promotes collaboration and prevents burnout. All these lead to greater productivity, and when your employees are working well, the business runs better too.
Encourages Collaboration and Teamwork
When employees tend to be friendly and laugh often, some managers view it as slacking off. On the contrary, humor and laughter promote bonding and teamwork. It brightens the workplace and energizes the people, improves work ethics, and creates enthusiasm. With more bonded teams, your business becomes more resilient.
Improves Your Health
Humor also improves your health, which is important in a business. As a leader, you need to be present to manage your business, and as employees, you need to be able to perform your job well.
Laughing keeps your heart and lungs healthy. It improves the blood flow in your body and releases endorphins that make you feel good. Humor relaxes your muscles and eases your stress. A stressful environment can easily make anyone sick, which results in absenteeism that will hurt your business.
Final Thoughts
Humor is in important in a business for a lot of reasons, and this list may not have covered all of them. Laughter is good for the health of everyone in a business environment. It helps you become a better leader that people can look up to and can connect with.
It helps create a positive work culture where employees can be creative and innovative. They enjoy working with people that have a sense of humor, keeping them motivated to do a better job and be more productive.
Sometimes you have to let your professional guard down and share a laugh or two with the people around you!
