Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Sometimes one of the great temptations we get as managers is to take ourselves and the situations we face too seriously. While this doesn't mean that the things that need to get done aren't important, it does mean that whatever we face today is temporary, and tomorrow will always have something to replace it.

As a result, if we don't learn how to carry with us a sense of humor, we can not only cause harm to our own wellbeing, but to the wellbeing of our fellow workers.

One of the areas that this can really help in is when things get so tight that everyone feels like they are walking on eggshells. A manager can help to defuse this type of situation by having an attitude that workers see as not being worried, but that life will go on no matter what happens in the particular situation that is now being faced.

Probably the best way to do this is to poke fun at ourselves. When we do this, it communicates to workers that they can ease up within and focus on the job at hand, instead of the consequences of failure.

I remember a story about a technology company that had grown tremendously fast and had to hire someone to help them take things to a higher level. Everyone in the company was worried about how things would change because they were used to being in a tremendously free business culture.

When the new man talked to the employees gathered together, he started to give out all the numbers stuff and goals and where he wanted to take the company etc. Everyone in the audience groaned over the things he was saying. Then toward the end of his talk he paused for a minute and said: I also want it to happen so I can keep my job. Everyone laughed and applauded.

A simple little sentence and he got the people on his side. Humor has that powerful affect when it's done in this way. Pointing to ourselves and speaking the unspoken (which is what the workers in the audience were all feeling), has a releasing power upon people that puts them at ease and gets them focused on what needs to be done to be successful.

Humor is a great tool in the war on tension that gets people to not worry about will happen, but to focus on making it happen.