As we wrap up our Music Conductor Leadership series, we are into the bonus round of Have Fun!
With all the time we spend at our jobs, having fun at work is required to preserve our sanity. However, misplaced concepts of workplace fun can bring out the worst in organizations. ibm.com succinctly clarifies this point:
“Forced fun is an oxymoron; the best fun has an element of spontaneity and no element of coercion or institutionalization. A corporate culture can enable fun, but it can’t mandate it.”
Leaders who want to bring humour and laughter into the workplace need to do so from the heart. If you are comfortable with your own leadership style, then you can influence an open and sharing culture that allows humour to permeate the day’s activities. Spontaneity is good for creativity and fun. On the other hand, even the slightest sense of forced humour will be picked up by those around you and it
will shut down everyone’s fun. Allow yourself, and your team to be yourselves. When it comes to laughter and fun, au naturel with respect and decorum, is the only way to go.
Removing un-fun things from the workplace is also a positive move towards making work more fun, or at least less painful. Boredom is typically the word that is applied to un-fun things in the workplace. Battling boredom is best done by providing challenge, variety, and visibility.
Here are 6 ideas that you can employ to remove the un-fun at work:
1. Witness results first-hand. Think about the recipients of your work. Your intention might have been to create an impact they love, but you may never truly realize the impact you’ve made until you witness it first-hand. In fact, research shows that people who go and see their work being received are 17 times more likely to be passionate about their work.
2. Get serious about flexibility. Hybrid working may just be the change of pace your employees are looking for or maybe they would enjoy moving from the morning shift to the afternoon production team?
3. Job Rotation: Whether it is semi-annual, quarterly, monthly or every few shifts. Rotating jobs in the factory or the office can reduce boredom and brings huge back-up and quality benefits to the company.
4. Automation: Automation can reduce or eliminate mundane, repetitive tasks. It usually takes investment, but the payoff is not only for the company, but for workers who can now focus on more interesting, higher value work.
5. Delegate:When a leader delegates well, everyone wins. Don’t just delegate basic jobs, delegate important, interesting work. When a leader does this they are actually doing their job of creating more leaders, and as a side benefit their team members end up with interesting work that moves their careers forward.
6. Let Them Pick a Project: Even better than number 6, empower your team members to pick projects that interest them, rather than having you decide.
We hope you have enjoyed our Music Conductor Leadership series. Be sure to check out the full list of blogs at https://sage-summit.ca/blog/. Or if it’s time to get serious about leadership development, take a look at our courses at https://sage-summit.ca/leadership-academy/.
In the coming months, the Wednesday Wisdom will be focussing on Teams, Strategy and Results.
Sources:
https://www.ibm.com/garage/method/practices/culture/fun-in-the-workplace/
