Dear Friends,
Last night at a Spiritual Leadership class in which I am involved,
we wound up discussing a very interesting topic. It was the topic of humor
and its significance in the life of a leader. In light of
yesterday’s Leadership Thought on what we in our church affectionally
call "Whimsey," I thought it appropriate to share a few thoughts on
whimsey’s bedfellow humor, and more specifically humor's role in the
workplace.
We all agreed that humor is not often listed as an important
essential in a leader's tool bag. How many books have you read that included
humor as an important quality for a leader to possess? Probably not many, but
the more we discussed the subject, the more convinced we became that leadership
was a key quality for a leader to possess.
The use of humor is an important part of the communication
process. The workplace doesn’t have to be all work and no play, for as most of
us have heard the adage, “All work and no play makes Johnny a dull
boy." And who want a bunch of dullards in the workplace?
Yes, we all know the guy at work who spends more time cracking
jokes than doing work, and yes, work is a serious business, but does it always
have to be done in the absence of wit and humor.
I still remember the good-natured humor and fun we enjoyed while
serving in the Calvary Chapel, Fort Lauderdale workplace. Jean and her friends
would regularly play pranks on each other. Several times to her dismay,
she would find her parked car relocated to an entirely different parking lot,
or discover that it had been completely wrapped in saran wrap. We would
occasionally find "Cool Whip" messages scribbled on our
bathroom mirror, or listen to serious calls from disguised voices asking
for some important favor. But Jean always got even. I will never forget
the time she hosted a Christmas party and passed out name cards to her
friends who were to participate in a future gift exchange. What the other girls
didn’t know was that Jean had placed her name on each one of the cards
that were distributed for the gift exchange. So, you can imagine the
consternation chagrin when the gifts were being exchanged and Jean got everyone.
Yes, it is OK to have fun in the workplace and see humor exercised
in the life of a leader. Let me quote from our Spiritual Leadership book by J.
Oswald Sanders. “Our sense of humor is a gift from God that should be
controlled as well as cultivated. Clean wholesome humor will relax tension and
relieve difficult situations, Agnes Strickland claimed that next to virtue, the
fun in this world is what we can least spare, and Helmut Thieleke writes Should
we not see that lines of laughter about the eyes are just as much marks of
faith as are the lines of care and seriousness? Is it only earnestness that is
baptized? Is laughter pagan? A church is
in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the
cabaret, the nightclub and the toastmasters.” The above quotes are taken from
Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Sanders, pp 77-78
And finally, “Humor is a great asset and an invaluable lubricant
in missionary life. Indeed, it is a most serious deficiency if a
missionary lacks a sense of humor.”
After our discussion last night we all agreed that humor is
an important quality for the leader to possess, but the key in using it is
balance and sensitivity, and knowing the appropriate time, and place to
use it, and above all knowing the person(s) to whom it is directed.
So, I suggest you don’t go wrapping Pastor Jared’s car in saran
wrap or relocating Nick’s car or leaving strange messages on our bathroom
mirror. But then again, if you do, who know the fun we might have in being
pranked.
Yours for humor in the workplace,
Tom
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