Leading with Love and Laughter summary

Loving leaders come in all shapes and sizes: from organizations known and unknown; small, medium, and large; some may be facing financial hardships, dwindling resources, and talent shortages – others not. One thing’s for sure, they’re everywhere.

They display philautia – the self-love that allows them to accept who they are and be open to risk-taking in their personal and professional relationships. And they also demonstrate philia – the friendship love between equals where each party grows through mutual respect, admiration, and trust. They create environments that engender compassion and caring precisely because they are compassionate and caring. Their love comes from their hearts.

Research supports the impact love has in the workplace. For example, Wharton professors Sigal Barsade and Olivia A. O’Neill showed that staff who recognized love and care in their work environments had greater job satisfaction, took fewer sick days, and worked better in teams. 

Other studies have shown that love creates stronger bonds between team members, and that workplaces with love have tighter teams, a more forgiving culture, better performance, and more trust. One long-term study even showed that those with peer support – which is a form of love – live longer.

There are many benefits to laughter. For starters, it can be a workout! Research at Vanderbilt University showed that ten to 15 minutes of laughter used up as much as 50 calories – about the same as in a piece of chocolate. 

It also helps prevent you from getting sick: psychoneuroimmunologists have found that laughter not only improves immune function and vascular health, but also relieves pain and improves your mental health.

It’s March 2020 and staff from the nonprofit People For the American Way are slowly logging into the weekly Zoom call and turning on their videos. Then, Political Director Lizet Ocampo joins. Uncontained laughter from everyone follows, as the call participants see not Ocampo’s face, but a potato with her eyes and lips. She tries desperately to remove the filter, but to no avail – all anyone can see is her potato eyes darting from side to side as she scrambles to solve the problem. In the end, she gives up and endures the giggles, continuing the meeting as a potato.

The key message here is: There are many opportunities throughout the day to use heartfelt humor in the workplace.

Laughter can bring numerous benefits to your organization. A 2012 study in the Journal of Managerial Psychology showed that workplace humor created enhanced performance and satisfaction, greater workgroup cohesion, improved health, and less burnout and stress. And in a 2017 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology article, the authors argued that successful use of appropriate humor at work signals both confidence and competence. This translates to the joke-teller being perceived as having higher organizational status.

And if you’re still not convinced why a good dose of humor in your workplace would be beneficial, consider this: University of Bristol researchers discovered that watching a comedy show actually produced an improvement in productivity of up to 10 percent.