Funny Business: The Importance Of Humor When Growing A Business

Growing a company is serious business. You’re in charge of keeping it functioning day to day, envisioning the future, and making mountains of tough decisions. You’re responsible for the welfare of your employees, for the impact the business makes on others and the environment, and you’re held accountable for any mistakes–even if you didn’t make them yourself. Sound hilarious? Even if it doesn’t, experts say you should laugh about it anyway.

Laughter does a lot more than provide a moment of fun during a stressful day. It puts you and those around you in a state more conducive to effective, creative work and fosters a more fulfilling lifestyle. Chris Roberts, assistant professor of management at the University of Missouri’s College of Business, had this to say in Psychology Today: “Humor has a significant impact in organizations… [it] isn’t incompatible with [the] goals of the workplace. It’s not incompatible with the organization’s desire to be competitive. In fact, we argue that humor is pretty important. It’s not just clowning around and having fun; it has meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers.”

Humor and laughter have been shown to have numerous benefits. According to a recent article, laughter decreases stress and relieves depression, enhances the immune system and improves health, and produces a sense of belonging and companionship when shared with others. It also stimulates creative thinking. When we laugh, we cease the narrow view of events that often plagues us and creates needless stress, and we are able to look at the world with a more positive and holistic viewpoint.

These effects do more than enhance personal performance and improve group dynamics, too. Positivity, lightheartedness, and humor are attractive qualities and inspire trust and confidence in clients, potential business partners and investors. And at the very least, it’s infectious–and who wouldn’t want to make spreading joy a part of their job?

Have you added a little funny business to your day lately?