Having Fun and Showing It
The Essential Intangibles Part 4
When you look at a résumé you can get a sense of what someone has done in the past and you can be reasonably sure that they can do it again. When you interview someone you’ll find out about certain situations that show their resourcefulness and their ability to think on their feet. Early on when hiring a new person to your staff you get a sense of what they can and can’t do.
This is part 4 of the series “The Essential Intangibles,” the little things that can make or break a leader. These intangibles are essential, but thankfully, they can be learned by anyone.
However, when it comes to the essential intangible of having fun and showing it, you often can’t tell whether a leader has this trait until they are already hired. Those having fun while working start to group together. Those that don’t become isolated and just slug away to work each morning to “make the doughnuts” like the Dunkin’ Donut baker in the old commercials.
When you don’t have fun and show it
Some people are pretty good at doing their jobs, but they just don’t have any fun doing it. They get the job done without cracking a smile. They are all job and no joy. This is certainly no reason to fire them. No one gets a pink slip that says: “Sorry, we have to let you go. You just don’t laugh enough.”
However, if the person is a leader then their inability to just have fun (or even an inability to show that they are) begins to block their connections with others on the team. People want to do more than just work with you, they want to enjoy doing it.
For years many leaders have talked about evaluating the “3 C’s” when it comes to hiring: competence, character and chemistry. Many of us have found that when it comes to chemistry, it can be best to ask yourself this question: “If this person walks by my desk, will I want them to to stop and chat a while or will I hope they go away.” This gut-check on chemistry is all about the people that are fun to have around. You might as well have fun on your job and show it. As Lila Green has said, “Time flies whether you’re having fun or not.”
When you do have fun and show it
Some people have a blast while doing their job,. They buckle down for a days work and get energized by it. When they get up to get coffee, they talk briefly to 4 people on the way and make their day better along the way. When others in the office go out for an impromptu lunch, these are the first people that get asked to go. When others want to “run something by someone” this is the employee that gets asked.
Being someone who has fun doing their job doesn’t often get you a big paycheck or the corner office at first, but you do become a go-to person in the office culture. Sure, there are goof offs that only know how to have fun and aren’t good at their jobs. That’s not what this intangible is about. If you’re good at your job and good at showing your fun side you’ll be the kind of person your boss wishes she could clone.
How to begin having fun and how to show it
Thomas Edison said, “I never did a day of work in my life. It was all fun.” This comes from a man who was known to rarely sleep more than a few hours each night and would work tirelessly to solve problems and invent new solutions. How did he do it? What’s the secret to having fun on the job? Here are some places to start:
Get a job you really want. Don’t just take a job, go after the one that matches your specific make-up. You’ll have more fun if you’re doing what you should be doing. This may take a while, you may not just be underemployed for a season, you may under-enjoy your job too. But go after the one you want.
Go out to lunch. Don’t just let others go grab sandwiches or fast food and say you’ve got to work through lunch while eating micro-waved soup. Take a break and have some fun with the office crew. If you work remotely, get on the videoconference call early or stay late to chat with people and catch up, having fun with them that way. If you fly into town for a retreat once a year, that’s your time as a remote employee to make up for all the time apart from the team.
Tell others about how fun it was to complete a certain task or project. When part of your job is fun for you, tell others about it. This raises the fun factor for the whole team.
Keep the big picture in mind. When things aren’t going well in your organization, see the big picture and still have fun turning the ship around. Don’t get depressed about how this quarter is going.
Fully engage in the fun stuff. Work at getting a funny gift for the Christmas party exchange and don’t stay in your office when they’re gathering in the lobby for someone’s birthday cake.
Laugh at other people’s jokes. Seriously. Sometimes you just need to loosen up and laugh a bit, even if you’re not the one telling the jokes.
All of this may feel like its about being an extrovert, and that introverts are penalized from having fun and showing it. That’s not the case. Sure, introverts (and I happen to be one) recharge from time alone, and we will want to buckle down and focus when its time to work and not be interrupted, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to have fun and show it when the time comes.
How to spot & reward someone who has fun and shows it
This may be the hardest intangible for a manager to reward, because in the end a team member that is having fun doesn’t seem to be actually contributing to the production of the organization. In fact, most bosses don’t want their staff to be having too much fun, it might be a signal that everyone is goofing off and not getting the job done. So there are some boundaries to rewarding those helping your culture to be more engaging by showing their fun side to the team.
Two of the most important rewards are including the fun people on decisions and using them to represent your organization. By including them in the key meetings, it helps the whole team make decisions with a lighter heart but with a commitment to the culture you’re building.
Having people who can have fun and show it represent you will increase everyone’s sense of connection to your company. Joy is contagious. And if you’re in a client or customer oriented business, then these people will be the best at getting them and keeping them happy, of course.
