It is notoriously difficult to call businessmen – or just responsible employees – humorers. But the latest research proves that humor can have a significant impact on our work and become one of our greatest competitive advantages.
Adding humor to the workplace is not difficult. You don’t have to make everyone laugh, sometimes you just have to create moments of lightness and togetherness. Any situation is good for this, such as an e-mail message. In this post, here are 4 ways to make business communication easier from the book “Humor Is Serious.
“Humor is serious.”
Why make jokes at work?
According to surveys of hundreds of senior managers conducted by Robert Half International and HodgeCronin & Associates, 98% of respondents said they favor employees with a sense of humor, and 84% believe such employees are more effective. Showing us a sense of humor can increase the likelihood that colleagues will attribute a higher status to us and vote for us as leaders.
And if you’re already a leader? Then you know about the trust crisis: nearly half of employees cite a lack of trust in leadership as the biggest problem affecting the quality of their work. Moreover, when employees are asked what characteristics make a leader trustworthy, the top-ranked answers (“We know what obstacles our leader has overcome” and “He talks like a regular person”) strongly demonstrate: employees today are reaching for more sincere, human leaders.
Humor is a powerful leadership strategy that helps break down barriers and strike a balance between authority and accessibility.
Leaders who master self-irony receive higher ratings from employees on reliability and leadership abilities.
And here’s another curious fact: In a study involving more than 50 teams, researchers analyzed pre-recorded meetings as well as expert evaluations of teamwork at baseline and two years later. The presence of humor in team interactions predetermined more functional communication and higher team performance both initially and over time.
A culture of ease allows teams to thrive, even (and especially) when the stakes are high and times are tough.
Humor in correspondence
One of the easiest ways to make communication easier is to add humor to correspondence. The average employee spends about 30% of his or her work time on email correspondence and receives 120 messages a day. But online correspondence – whether it’s emails, group chat, text messages, TikTok, or any of the latest technology that’s already supplanted all of that as we prepare this post – shouldn’t be exhausting.
Try looking at digital messaging as an opportunity to connect authentically with colleagues and partners.
Here are four ways to make correspondence more fun.
Use Callbacks
A
callback refers back to a shared experience between you and the recipient of the message, turning a once-experienced moment into a joke for the dedicated. Here’s an example. Daria once left work early to make it to the hair salon, and she and her boss, Saagar, laughed about how her client report might not be perfect, but at least her hair would be fine.
Later that night, Daria sent her boss the completed report along with a callback:
Saagar,
enclosed, I’m sending you an updated report. Thinking back to our conversation this morning, I think this will be a great way to start conversations with management. Let me know if the report needs revision or if it now matches my hair, i.e., it’s perfect.
Daria
Saagar was quick to respond in the same vein:
Daria,
no changes needed, the report fits your hair perfectly. Enjoy your vacation with your family.
Always with beautiful hair,
Saagar
.
We can see that Daria amplified the moment of ease she had with Saagar, created a new moment and allowed her boss to respond in the same way. Special thanks to Saagar for not only embracing the lighthearted humor, but developing it in his signature.
Bring your signature to life
Your email signature says a lot about you. Do you tend to end with a “buttoned up,” formal “Best wishes”? A slightly passive-aggressive “Thank you in advance for your help” or an upbeat “See you soon”?
As Saagar has shown, signatures are a first-class platform for demonstrating ease of communication. Here are a few humorous choices that caught our attention.
In asking for a favor: “Fingers and toes crossed…”
When apologizing for a late response, “With all shyness…”
Working in “keeping your head down” mode: “Your caffeine-pumped…”
With reference to a phone conversation interrupted by a dog barking in the background: “Still wondering who let the dogs out…”
Add a postscript
In
well-known studies of responses to direct mailings, professor and author Siegfried Fegele found that 90 percent of people read the postscript before they read the actual text of the email. This means that your P. S. is likely to be the recipient’s first, not last, impression.
The same is true of email. It’s like finally fulfilling a childhood dream of having dessert before dinner. As such, P. S. – is an effective tool for adding a touch of levity to a serious e-mail. Here’s an example:
Hi Mark,
I’m not sure if the hyperlink appeared in yesterday’s email, so I wanted to supplement it with an old-fashioned but fail-safe PDF with some flowcharts. Enjoy watching it!
Cheers
,
Sachi
P.
S. The PDF is kind of a blockbuster.
The postscript caught on for some reason (at least Mark did). It’s a delightfully uncomplicated technique precisely because of the details. Just name something real to you here and now-say, “P. S. It’s hot in Tucson” or “P. S. It’s raining in San Francisco”-and it’s clear that you’re human, not robotic (because everyone knows that robots can’t function in extreme heat or rain).
Whether it’s a casual observation, a callback to the content of an email, or a reference to a closed joke understood by you and the recipient, a light-hearted postscript is the equivalent of a wink at an email: it signals intimacy and invites reciprocal playfulness.
Autoresponse while you’re away
is one thing to bring ease to work when you’re in the workplace, but the savviest know how to do it even outside of the office. An autoresponder set up for vacation or other absences is a great way to do this.
Here’s an example of a typical autoresponse:
I’ll be out of the office until Monday, July 10. If you need immediate assistance, please contact
…
And here’s how Heather Carrier Hunt, head of training and development at IDEO, recognized as the undisputed master of the original auto response form, responds
.
I am overseas with the most cranky Wi-Fi I have ever come across. It invites awareness and provides a million moments frozen in a belligerent present. I’ll connect with you again on July 10 when I return to New York, where data flows and time doesn’t freeze here or there. In the meantime, thank you for your patience.
For Heather, adding levity to the autoresponder is “an opportunity to switch the autoresponder interaction from scarcity (no one’s home) to abundance (well, that’s my big luck).” She believes that this way, “Communication shifts from a dry “I have a request or need” to a human “I understand and hear you,” thereby setting the tone for a more productive dynamic once she gets back online.
Don’t worry, though — you don’t have to strain your imagination trying to keep up with Heather to bring levity to an autoreply. Anything simple, lighthearted, and human will do the trick. Here’s an example of a humane auto-response from an employee who went hiking in the mountains:
Oh
, hi! I’m backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains with no cell service until September 22. I’ll reply to your letter as soon as I get back to civilization.
With love to you and civilization,
Peter
.
Based on “Humor Is Serious
”
Cover of the post – unsplash.com
The post Make a joke and earn it. Why humor in business correspondence appeared first on Business.
