Do you desire to work in an organization that value its people over its product; a company that continues to grow and build a loyal, talented workforce?

A sensational workplace should focus on behavior-based performance management. Behavior-based performance management insists on the organization’s leaders recognizing that people work best when expectations are clear. As leaders, we want our team to contribute to the overall vision, while exhibiting a positive outlook and passion for the work they do every day.

Really, why would we want to lead with any other outcome than this?

This is why strong leadership in any organization is critical. A company’s rate of growth is generally in line with how motivated their people are in bringing the vision to life. Our customers or audiences will recognize this authenticity.

COMMUNICATING with TRANSPARENCY is KEY
Communicating vision and expectations clearly is essential to a healthy and blossoming workplace. An underlying cause of a high turnover workforce may be related to mixed messages or undefined expectations. Openly sharing leadership’s vision at meetings with the team will help to establish trust and enable silent leaders to emerge. Use your people to garner ideas and feedback…you’ll be surprised at how this will motivate them to do great work.

HONESTY is the BEST POLICY
Organizations are essentially a collection of relationships, and honesty is one of the most obvious values that can be used to create stronger teams. It is a very valuable, though often overlooked, commodity at the workplace.

When one chooses to be more honest with others, morale and productivity of the team improves. In fact, telling the truth is probably the single most cost-effective and simple way to promote employee satisfaction.

LEADERSHIP is about being RESPONSIBLE
I believe that everyone has the potential to lead. As a leader, you accept responsibility for the lives of others. Your job as a leader is to create situations and events that lead to an emotional response. The response, whether positive or negative, has a relative effect on productivity.

The best way to ruin a sensational workplace is to put an unstable leader at the helm. Leaders should be consistent with their approach and with their people. Listening should be a skill that is practiced often; requiring patience and focus. If you allow your team the opportunity to express their ideas, feelings and dreams, you might just be amazed at how easily change can occur.

Building trust takes time. By achieving a strong level of trust with your team, it will make your job as a leader that much easier when implementing change.

Paula Morand is a dedicated wife, mother and lover of life.  She is the Founder and CEO of JumpStart 720, an award winning leadership coaching company that is committed to powering life by engaging individuals, companies and communities to more intentional living.  For more information:  www.jumpstart720.com

How do you build a business with employees who love going to work each day, every day? What are those secret ingredients to finding and keeping the right people on your team?

Similarly, as an employee, what can you do to love your job more when in actual fact you don’t? What is the tipping point that can move you from whining to winning at work?

Can humor really become a recognized asset in the workplace?

Fortune 500 companies such as Southwest Airlines, IBM, AT&T, Bank of America, Kodak, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Bank of America, and many others have adopted ‘humor’ into their workplaces as a tool to improve morale and increase their bottom line.

I think there are some fundamental reasons why humor is not only important, but should be considered a vital element to add to your internal and potentially external experience. Humor can help to energize people, facilitate communication, and build relationships.

Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Indiana has compiled some fascinating facts from a research study on the effects of humor. Some of these findings are:
• 15 minutes of laughter equals the benefit of 2 hours sleep.
• One good belly laugh burns off 3 1/2 calories.
• Laughing for 15 seconds adds 2 days to your life span.
• The Chinese laugh more than any other culture in the world

ENERGIZE Your OFFICE
Did you know that humor can promote better attendance at work because your people are energized? Think of any speaker or training session you have been to and you most likely remember the ones where there were funny stories, anecdotes or jokes shared. That is because humor illicits a physical response through laughter which in turns releases endorphins; thus waking us up and grabbing our attention.

A few moments of humor in the workplace can lead to increased productivity as the newly energized employee returns to his or her task.

In working environments where the use of humor is supported, you will often see transformative change through the reduction of stress as well as the ability to provide some perspective. Sometimes we take ourselves far too seriously! Learning to laugh at ourselves and our work lightens the load.

Make an effort to increase your personal humor quotient and allow it to be contagious. You will notice a change.

USING Humor To SPARK COMMUNICATION
Many times, the use of humor can open the door to a non-threatening setting through which an employee or employer can communicate without intensifying the emotional temperature of the relationship.

Another example might be a flustered administrator who posts the sign, I am on overdrive and if that isn’t fast enough for you, then watch yourself when I go in reverse.

Or the cluttered manager whose messy office is complimented with a note that says, Enter the Creative Zone where a messy office is better than tidy idleness. The message is clear, yet the communication is done in a light, and therefore, less stressful way. The secretary’s sign pokes fun at the situation, and the boss’s note pokes fun at himself.

RELATIONSHIPS Matter
We all know that laughter reduces stress, increases energy, motivates and makes people feel better about themselves and others. Yet many offices, or cubicle farms, are serious spaces with people worrying that a joke could offend, inspire, ridicule or make them look unworthy of promotion. Building a cohesive team with a positive dynamic can be fostered effectively by the use of humor.

Yes, humor can bring about risk, but handled the right way, the risks are outweighed by the rewards of a happier workforce.

Laughter reduces stress by making people breathe deeply and shift their focus. As Mark Twain wrote:

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit take their place.

Paula Morand is a dedicated wife, mother and lover of life.  She is the Founder and CEO of JumpStart 720, an award winning leadership coaching company that is committed to powering life by engaging individuals, companies and communities to more intentional living.  For more information:  www.jumpstart720.com