George Gilbert’s Motivational Humor

I recently spoke at the National ADP convention at the Venetian. One of the questions that came up was, “How do I get a co-worker with no sense of humor to laugh?” Someone in the audience suggested it starts with a smile. They are absolutely correct. Victor Borge once said “A smile is the closest distance between two people.” Before you try and make them laugh, see if you can get them to smile. Start by smiling at them. If they smile back you have made the first step. Second, ask them questions that will trigger a positive response. When my grandfather was in a retirement home my mother would go and visit. She would ask many of the residents, “How are you today?” They would reply, “I don’t feel well” or “My arthritis is acting up.” So my mother changed her questions to something positive, “Don’t you look beautiful today.” They would then smile and respond in a positive way, “Thank you, I just had my hair done.”

So start asking questions that will get a positive response and put that person in a good mood. Once they are answering questions positively it will be easier to inject humor into the conversation. It is also important to remember that everyone has their own sense of humor and what might make you laugh will not seem funny to someone else. Try to find out what the other person’s interests are and then it will be easier to find out what they find funny. When we say someone doesn’t have a sense of humor it usually means they don’t laugh at our jokes or find funny what we find funny, but there are also those who don’t want to laugh. The most important thing to remember is to keep your sense of humor. Don’t let those around you get you down. Just because they don’t want to enjoy life doesn’t mean you don’t have to.

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What makes a company a great company to work for? Is it great health benefits? Is it a good 401k plan? Is it the salary? You can have all of this for your employees and they still may not be happy working for you if you don’t treat them right. If you have the attitude of, “Well you ingrates I pay you enough so do your job and don’t expect to be thanked”, chances are you are going to have disgruntled employees. Fortune Magazine recently came out with their top 100 companies to work for and J.M. Smucker’s was rated number one. The Co-CEO’s Tim and Richard Smuckers live by the code that their father Paul Smucker set for the company, “Listen with your full attention, look for the good in others, have a sense of humor, and say thank you for a job well done.” I think that would make a great mission statement for any company to follow. It’s so simple and yet so effective. Listen to your customers and employees and they will listen to you. Find the positive in others and they will respond. Find the humor in the situations around you. Don’t take yourself so seriously and be sure to show others you appreciate them. Maybe that’s why they say, “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.”

“Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” –Sam Walton

Just because you have a title doesn’t mean you are a good leader. A good leader is someone who creates a fun and friendly work environment where people come together as a team to accomplish a goal or set of goals. I give workshops on teambuilding. These seminars are designed to help an organization create a fun and friendly environment to bring the employees together. Teambuilding may start at my workshop, but to be effective you must work at keeping the team together everyday. If you create an environment where employees are not happy, fearful of keeping their job, and don’t respect you, the long term results for your company is failure. Some managers/owners think getting everyone together for a pizza party will boost morale. Pizza parties are good if the employee’s are already happy. If morale is down because you don’t treat them with respect no amount of pizza or Krispy Cream donuts are going to be effective. They would rather be eating somewhere else with someone else. I have seen managers systematically try to break each member of their department by threatening them with unwarranted verbal attacks, trumped up accusations all because that department wasn’t doing well. Rather than take the responsibility for its problems they think they can motivate by fear. Motivation by fear may have short term success if at all.

Create a work environment where employees want to be. A proper work environment has trust, respect, fun, humor. If you have these elements in your work environment you will see much more successful results.   Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that’s assault, not leadership.”