The Funny Leader: Using Humour to Build Culture
Sir Richard Branson is renowned as one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs. From music, to airlines, hotels, cruise ships, and even space travel, Branson’s Virgin Group of companies are among the most successful in their respective sectors.
But that’s not all Branson is known for. He’s also one of the business world’s funniest leaders.
There was the time in 2015 when Branson, while visiting Chicago to promote the opening of a Virgin Hotel, appeared during half-time at a Chicago Bulls game, where he sat on a small dolly, grabbed onto the handles of a huge slingshot, and was propelled across the court as a human bowling ball to knock down oversized novelty pins.
Or the time in 2008 when he jumped from the 14th floor of an office tower in Mumbai, India, and was lowered by safety ropes amidst a blitz of red balloons to promote the launch of Virgin Mobile. Or when he broke out of a metal cage suspended by a crane high above a busy street in Toronto to celebrate Canada’s decision to pass legislation allowing consumers to “break free” from their cell phone contracts. Or the time in 1998 when he drove a tank down a New York City street and crashed through a wall of Coca-Cola cans to promote his own Virgin Cola.
Over the years, Branson has donned all kinds of crazy costumes, ridden every mammal worth riding, and has been dangled, slung or dropped from all manner of structures.
Why would one of the world’s wealthiest and most successful business people spend so much time trying to elicit a giggle?
What Branson knows, and what a growing population of leaders are learning, is that humour is good for business. Seriously.
It is well known in the marketing and advertising world that humour is arguably the most potent tool to build brand awareness and drive sales. Humour cultivates brand loyalty. It convinces consumers to open and read more emails and social media posts which, in turn, drives more sales. You ever wonder why so many revered Super Bowl television ads rely on humour to promote their products and services? Consumer surveys show that funny ads are up to 90 percent more memorable than serious ads.
If humour resonates and cultivates so much goodwill and loyalty with customers, you might think it would do wonders for relationships between leaders and the people they lead. And you’d be right.
The benefits of humour in leadership has been scientifically proven. No, really.
Research has already confirmed that humour, properly dispensed, can have a wide range of positive effects on working people.
One research study found that funny leaders were more successful at driving creativity, job satisfaction, and engagement. Other research studies found that humour significantly enhanced all aspects of the “leader-member exchange (LMX),” thus making employees feel safer and reducing overall stress at work.
And this is hardly a new discovery. In 1987, American psychologist and researcher Wayne Decker published an often-quoted survey that found that managers who made effective use of humour were 25 percent more respected than their less funny peers.
Why is humour so effective at triggering positive feelings among consumers and employees alike?
Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas – professors at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and authors of the book Humour, Seriously: Why Humour is a Superpower at Work and in Life – credit brain chemistry for making humour so effective at cultivating positive feelings. “When people laugh, a neuro-chemical response is activated: their brains flood with dopamine (which increases happiness), endorphins (which increases resilience), and oxytocin (the same “trust hormone” released during sex and childbirth—plus a way to do it that’s more HR-friendly),” Aaker and Bagdonas wrote. “These hormones make us feel calmer, more confident, and more resourceful – which lowers stress and unlocks more creative thinking.”
However, just about everyone who has written about the role that humour can play in effective leadership includes a caveat: the type of humour you employ will largely determine whether the impacts are positive or negative.
Making fun of yourself versus making fun of others
It’s so obvious it almost doesn’t need to be said, but making fun of other people is not a particularly effective form of humour. Not if you’re trying to drive things like engagement, job satisfaction, and loyalty.
Making fun of others through sarcastic comments may be intended as a form of humour. But in the end, all you’re doing is making someone else the butt of your joke and – save for a very few special circumstances – most of us don’t like to be put in that situation.
Self-deprecating humour, on the other hand, can be extremely effective at cultivating trust between leaders and the people they lead. You could argue that is the secret recipe behind Branson’s stunts: he engages in silly antics not just to make people laugh at him, but also to laugh with him when they see the fun he's having.
But not all forms of self-deprecating humour will work for leaders: research shows that aggressive self-deprecation – where someone might demonstrate a capacity for cruelty or sharing too much personal information – can backfire in spectacular fashion.
Can every leader be funny?
If you’re wondering if any business leader can learn how to be funny, you should consider that there are people out there teaching it.
The aforementioned professors Aaker and Bagdonas actually teach a course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business on how to help budding business leaders “develop an appreciation of how humour functions in the workplace.” The professors argue that understanding the different, nuanced types of humour and – perhaps most importantly – learning how to “read the room,” can allow even the most staid personality to occasionally make some funny joke. Sometimes, the humour may come from pointing out how unfunny you are in real life.
The trick here is to ensure that your attempts at humour are authentic and good-natured. The people you lead can sniff out an imposter or charlatan, and they will react with disdain if you are too negative or aggressive, even when you’re making fun of yourself.
So, leaders, go forth and be funny. But always remember, there are some serious implications to humour in the workplace.