#MASTERING UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS HOW TO#

#MASTERING UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS HOW TO#

'The actual good news is that our lives are full of humor if we know how to look for it. You might, for example, mention how you've only been combing the front of your hair since you started working from home. Instead of racking your brain for a funny one-liner, talk about honest things that have occurred in your life. The first, Aaker said: 'Just notice what's true.' In their TED talk, Aaker and Bagdonas offered two tips for leaders who want to bring laughter into the workplace. Bad, forced jokes are cringe-inducing at best, and can arguably damage relationships at worst. Of course, not everyone finds humor easy to accomplish. Their employees are 15% more engaged and committed, and their teams are twice as likely to solve a creativity challenge, Aaker and Bagdonas wrote in an accompanying Harvard Business Review blog post. The pair cited a study from the academic journal Social Behavior and Personality, which found that leaders with any sense of humor are seen as 27% more admirable and motivating than those who don't joke around. And who doesn't want to feel more joy and love in our lives?' Aaker noted.

'It floods our brains with the same hormones associated with love. Their relationships can go from being 'transactional to human,' the Stanford duo said. This chemical reaction in your brain is what makes you feel bonded with others, according to Aaker and Bagdonas.įollowing this logic, leaders who share a laugh with their employees can foster stronger connections with them. When people share a laugh, their brains release certain hormones - endorphins and dopamine - that emulate the feeling of a runner's high, or a brief state of extreme joy and delight. Their rationale: Laughter accelerates feelings of trust, closeness and comfort. The approach also helps foster creativity and resilience among all involved, they said. The pair delivered the TED talk together in January, noting that leaders can often use humor to build stronger connections with their team. And in fact, often we can do them better and more fashionably,' Naomi Bagdonas, a management lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, said in a TED talk earlier this year.īagdonas co-teaches a course at Stanford on the power of humor in leadership with behavioral scientist Jennifer Aaker. 'We can do serious things without taking ourselves too seriously.

Mastering uncomfortable conversations