Humor in Business Management

Are you trying to figure out how to incorporate humor into your business management? Do you feel as if things are a bit too serious and could use a more relaxed feel? Introducing humor into your management system could be just the solution you need. It’s not going to be easy and depending on the type of business, you could really have your work cut out for you. However, humor lightens the mood for your employees, increases the chances they will listen to you and remember what you say and when done effectively, can increase productivity.

Let’s start by defining what humor is. Webster defines humor as “a quality akin to wit, but depending for its effect less on point or brilliancy of expression”. What does that mean and how does that help you with your business management approach?

Humor deals with emotions and the expression of them in a light-hearted way that leaves others with a good feeling. When it comes to business, this is very important. You want people you deal with to feel good. It doesn’t matter if it’s the people you sell to or the person that delivers the mail. When people feel good, they perform better.

Introducing humor into your management system will increase the effectiveness of the people that you work with. There are pitfalls though so caution should be taken when attempting to mix in humor. Since people have different senses of humor, you don’t want to offend anyone. There are different areas of humor and following a very simple chart will keep you from making mistakes. If you consider humor like a street light you can consider three colors of humor:

- Red
- Yellow
- Green

Humor that would be considered red is completely inappropriate and shouldn’t be used in the business setting ever. Red light humor should only be used in a private setting outside of the work environment. This type of humor is very, very rarely seen in the business place.

Yellow light humor is also considered unfit for the business place. Although it’s not nearly as inappropriate as red light humor, it’s best to air on the side of caution. Yellow light humor should be used only with specific types of people when you know it will not be offensive to that person.

The last type of humor is green light humor. This type of humor is okay to use around the whole work place. This is the type of humor you’ll want to really mix into your business management. This type of humor is good, clean and fun. Don’t be afraid to use as much green light humor as possible when mixing it into your business.

If you follow these simple rules you’ll have no trouble incorporating humor in business management. Remember that each person is different so finding a mix of the right stuff is really what makes this work. The most important thing is to leave people you deal with feeling good and happy. Adding the right amount of humor to your management will ensure this so you can be a stronger, better leader.