Page Title

Managing with Humor

December 12, 2000

"Managers at all levels can be more effective by incorporating humor into their workplaces.  Here are a few suggestions for putting more humor into yours.

1. Lead by example.  Lighten up; show more than your 'executive cool' face; let others see that you have a full range of human emotions.
2. Integrate humor into your speeches, presentations, memos, and letters.  When you're commending someone, say, or even delivering a negative message, add a touch of humor and watch for the difference it makes.
3. Look more relaxed and approachable by using self-effacing humor.  If you have framed credentials hanging on your office wall, add to them the lifetime warranty on your new muffler - in a walnut frame with gold trim.
4. When you are hiring managers, use as criteria their humor, imagination, enthusiasm, and their ability to spark all these in other people.
5. In meetings, use humor to set a relaxed tone, stir up creative thinking, and defuse conflicts.
6. Have a bulleting board for funny and fun items; better yet, let these be put up on regular bulletin boards.  When people go on vacation, encourage them to send postcards for the bulletin board - regular tourist cards, or even better, goofy and tacky postcards, like the giant trout attacking the boat.  Get the ball rolling by sending the first card when you go on vacation (Morreall, 1997, pp.215-216)."

Reference:  Morreall, J. (1997).  Humor works.  Amherst, MA: HRD Press.

Are you managing with humor?

* Humor Works is available on loan at the OSU Leadership Center.  A listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~leaders

Back to Top >

Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-02-02