It is likely that we’ve all heard the saying, “laughter is the best medicine” once or twice in our lifetime. But did you know that a sense of humor is thought to increase trust in a leader? This week the Personal Kaizen team shares a TedTalk by behavioral scientist, Jennifer Aaker, and corporate strategist, Naomi Bagdonas, where they discuss the power of humor.
Laughter and Leadership
In the past, we’ve shared Colin Powell’s 13 Rules for Leadership, where optimism is a powerful piece of being a great leader. As we learned today, humor and laughter are also major keys to being a trusted leader!
Here are a few tips from today’s TedTalk:
- Laughter shortens the path to connection. Connect with your peers quickly by sharing a simple joke!
- Humor is easy to find if we know how to look for it. The Priming Effect states that our brains are wired to see what we are set up to expect. If we plan to tackle our day with optimism, we shift how we interact with the world and how it reacts to us.
- Having a good sense of humor makes us human. Being human is a catapult to building trust and strong bonds.
We hope that this TedTalk brought a few laughs, while also providing you with a new outlook on humor. It’s important to remember that we can still be serious without taking ourselves so seriously (this is rule number 6 after all…)!
