There’s nothing like sunshine and a warm spring breeze to lift the spirits. Spring is a great time to try new things and bring joy to the office. The sun is shining outside, so bring some sunshine inside with a little humor.

Humor in the Workplace

Leaders today face many challenges in striving to meet company goals and keep employees happy. Encouraging teamwork and fostering an empowered work environment are key factors in creating a high performance workplace. Another, often under-utilized tool to creating high performance workplaces is humor.

There are several benefits to keeping things light at the office:

Improve Morale

Injecting a little fun into the workday helps improve morale. One of my clients who leads a call centre occasionally sets up game days where everyone dresses up in a theme and the teams compete against each other to get the most sales.

The laughter and joy in their voices bubble over into the phones and their customers pick up on the high morale rolling through the team.

Achieve Goals and Encourage Teamwork

Because humor in the workplace has the potential to enhance productivity, it often helps organizations complete goals and meet deadlines. Humor is especially helpful when leaders use it to get a team project through the necessary stages toward completion.

Why is humor so important during a project? Most projects come across roadblocks and problems along the way that can derail progress and cause delays. Leaders who use humor to diffuse a stressful situation or face problems with a positive outlook are more likely to move past issues that crop up quickly and efficiently.

The effective use of humor also allows team members to use creative problem solving to resolve dilemmas because they feel safe to “think outside the box.”

The appropriate use of humor develops a sense of trust between team leaders and members that promotes originality and imagination. However, it’s important to realize that the use of humor should not detract from the project at hand. Too much humor can have a negative effect on employees if it is overused, and harm the project rather than help it.

Temper humor with professionalism and stay away from sarcasm and ridicule, which have nothing to do with lighthearted, work-appropriate humor.

Relieve Stress

Humor is a low-cost way to lessen workplace stress and boost productivity at the same time. Humor tends to relax people and create an environment more conducive to getting things done.

Humor is also effective at reducing conflict between individuals and averting potential problems before they arise or become too big. Scientists have found that laughter releases specific chemicals in the body that increase energy and cultivate a positive attitude. When employees are happy and stress-free, the organization’s goals are easier to achieve.

Although humor doesn’t necessarily come naturally to everyone, it is possible to improve your leadership style by allowing humor to become a part of your work personality and how you deal with employees.

Allow moments requiring humor to spring up naturally -don’t force humor where it doesn’t belong, as people will sense the insincerity. Simply be more open to possibilities that may benefit from a sprinkling of humor, and don’t shy away from its application when a situation presents itself. Give humor a try and help your team members to incorporate a sense of joy into their daily routine.

Shelley Holmes is the creator of leadership-and-motivation-training.com -a website designed for the high performance leader who wants to fast-track their career to enduring success by bringing out the best in themselves and others.
Go to http://www.leadership-and-motivation-training.com to pick up your free audio on how to manage emotions in the workplace.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shelley_Holmes

Natural laughter is a two-part, spontaneous, response to humor, that has physiological, psychological, and physical benefits.

Most agree that we laugh when we find something to be humorous, yet different reasons exist for what we find to be humorous. Additionally, different things are humorous to us at different stages of life.

Laughter, a physiological response to humor, can be broken down into two parts.

The first is a set of gestures, and the second is the production of sound. The brain forces to conduct both responses simultaneously. From a physiological standpoint, a “sensor” in the brain responds to laughter by triggering other neural circuits in the brain, which, in turn, generate more laughter.

Oddly enough, laughter is an orderly response, and almost occurs “spontaneously” during pauses at the end of phrases, earning it the name the punctuation effect. Human beings are the only species capable of laughter, and the average adult does so approximately 17 times per day.

Good health is one of the many benefits of laughter. Laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones, and also helps us cope with serious illnesses.

Physiologically, laughter promotes healing, by lowering the blood pressure, and by increasing the vascular blood flow and the oxygenation of the blood.

Physical fitness stemming from laughter is a benefit known to few. Scientists estimate that laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout on a rowing machine, or to 15 minutes on a stationary exercise bike. The mere act of laughing exercises the diaphragm, as well as the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles.

Another benefit of laughter is that it improves our over-all mental health. Pent up negative emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness, can cause biochemical changes in our bodies that can produce a harmful effect.

Laughter provides a harmless outlet for these negative emotions, and provides a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult or stressful situations. 

Copyright © http://www.coolquiz.com

Natural laughter is a two-part, spontaneous, response to humor, that has physiological, psychological, and physical benefits.

Most agree that we laugh when we find something to be humorous, yet different reasons exist for what we find to be humorous. Additionally, different things are humorous to us at different stages of life.

Laughter, a physiological response to humor, can be broken down into two parts.

The first is a set of gestures, and the second is the production of sound. The brain forces to conduct both responses simultaneously. From a physiological standpoint, a “sensor” in the brain responds to laughter by triggering other neural circuits in the brain, which, in turn, generate more laughter.

Oddly enough, laughter is an orderly response, and almost occurs “spontaneously” during pauses at the end of phrases, earning it the name the punctuation effect. Human beings are the only species capable of laughter, and the average adult does so approximately 17 times per day.

Good health is one of the many benefits of laughter. Laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones, and also helps us cope with serious illnesses.

Physiologically, laughter promotes healing, by lowering the blood pressure, and by increasing the vascular blood flow and the oxygenation of the blood.

Physical fitness stemming from laughter is a benefit known to few. Scientists estimate that laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout on a rowing machine, or to 15 minutes on a stationary exercise bike. The mere act of laughing exercises the diaphragm, as well as the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles.

Another benefit of laughter is that it improves our over-all mental health. Pent up negative emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness, can cause biochemical changes in our bodies that can produce a harmful effect.

Laughter provides a harmless outlet for these negative emotions, and provides a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult or stressful situations.

Copyright © http://www.coolquiz.com.