Last week I discovered the catchy phrase “leader humor,” an accepted shorthand for leader who use their sense of humor to lead. I first saw it referenced in a LinkedIn post by my friend and colleague Dr. Belinda Chiu. It’s a thing! I felt so validated reading this distinction about it:
“Leader affiliative humor is generally beneficial, while leader aggressive humor is largely harmful.”
Bingo! This is what I always say. Not that exact sentence, but this is definitely what I know to be true. Glad someone with an academic study came to the same conclusion. Affiliative humor, is a lot like it sounds. In fact, the definition of the word affiliative - from which it derives - has the word “connection,” in it! As opposed to aggressive humor, which has the opposite effect. Aggressive humor, think Dave Chapelle, gets laughs on Netflix, but it will likely create division…at work. Or in a marriage. Or really anywhere, in my opinion.
The leader humor study also reports that humor “is the most promising but least understood communication strategy leaders utilize.” Because I sometimes get pushback about the use of humor by leaders, here are three ways leading with a sense of humor works.
1. The playful verbal and non-verbal communication of interesting and unexpected stories shared by leaders can trigger the dopaminergic reward centers of followers' brains and produce various positive emotions for followers such as joy, amusement, and happiness.
This is why telling personal stories is so valuable. This also speaks to the basic principle of the element of surprise to get people engaged.
2. Leader display of humor also transmits leader's positive emotions to followers who receive those humorous communications via the emotional contagion.
Emotional contagion is real. You show up positive and your “followers” are bound to mirror this back. And my favorite:
3. Positive leader humor is correlated with stronger job satisfaction, greater work engagement, enhanced affective commitment, improved follower morale, as well as diminished intention to withdraw.
This is amazingly specific and posits shared laughter as this amazing gift for any workplace! Who doesn’t want each of those outcomes? Staying away from sarcasm and jokes that put anyone down is the key, looking for ways to share some surprising quirks about who you are and concise stories about moments that contributed to your character can clearly make a difference in leadership. If you want to talk more about this or have any questions please feel free to e-mail me directly dani@laughteroncall.com.
