A year ago, we rescued a ping pong table. In a neighboring office suite, we saw a folded table just gathering dust. This sad site sparked an idea. We asked them if we could store their table in our office. They obliged. Within fifteen minutes we were playing our first of hundreds of games of ping pong. That started our commitment to prioritizing play in our office.

This Week’s Edition

In your day-to-day, is having fun mere wishful thinking or an actual priority?  Find out the positive impact of playing and laughter at work in this week’s newsletter.

Clarify Your Thinking

This past summer, we moved that same ping pong table to the front area of our office to entice more play. Since then, it’s gotten daily use. In fact, as our team has grown, we’ve gotten creative in how to include everyone. 

We discovered Jungle Pong, a fast-paced around-the-world version of ping pong. Suffice to say, we are addicted.  With every game something completely unexpected happens which leaves us doubled over in laughter. 

The other day a leader was using our office as a sanctuary for Leadership 

Thinking Time, and we invited him to join our team’s ping pong antics.  Happily, he joined the competition and gave us a run for our money.  Afterward, he said, “That was the most fun I’ve had in an office environment in a long time.” 

Work is hard. Leadership is even harder. When we are beaten down, exhausted and beyond tired, we are susceptible to the doubt that can creep in especially when we fail to achieve the outcomes we desire. 

Old Thinking: My list is too long. I don’t have time to take a break, let alone waste time on having fun. I’m already behind and not meeting my goals.

New Thinking: Maybe my brain needs a break. Maybe I need to engage in a little playtime with my team. Who knows, maybe we might end up laughing together?

Thoughts Lead to Actions

I’m tempted to support this week’s newsletter thesis about taking time to play and enjoying a little laughter with statistics that will shore up the argument, but I’ll trust you know it as a truism of life: 

• Take time to play.

• Laugh with your team.

• Grow your relationships.

• Make work more enjoyable and productive.

Some of you may still need the stats so here they are:

• 81% say having a fun work environment makes them more productive

• 93% say laughing at work helps reduce work-related stress

And for readers who want even more support, let me offer the anecdotal experiences of others… 

Recently, we hosted an event for leaders. We dubbed it Lead with a Little Laughter. We bought out an entire improvisational comedy show with the geniuses at Four Day Weekend in Dallas. It was a huge hit for many reasons. Here were some of the comments from the leaders who attended: 

• “I’m dealing with some heavy stuff at the moment and laughing for a full hour was the best medicine.”

• “To laugh that hard for that long was just plain good for the soul.”

• “Thank you so much for reminding me how to have fun and laugh again.”

Is it possible that the “cure” for what ails us as leaders in this post-pandemic pre-recession era is not the completion of more tasks but taking a moment to play and risk the onset of uncontrollable laughter?

Take these steps in your journey to laughter, the best medicine:

Step 1: Say “yes” to invitations for fun things even if you think you don’t have time, or you may not like them.

Step 2: Play full out. Don’t hold back. Throw yourself into Jungle Pong unabashedly. 

Step 3: Give yourself permission to laugh out loud and to laugh at yourself.

The texts and emails keep rolling in from leaders at our event about the near-medicinal impact of taking time to have fun and laugh a little. We’re curious to see how that impacts their leadership and the culture of their team environment in the coming weeks and months.

Boost Your Performance

As someone who is focused on getting all the tasks done each day, my team has had a wonderful impact on me regarding prioritizing playtime. Surprisingly everything has gotten done and we’ve had more fun doing it.  Find out more in this week’s video. Kudos to you who take the time to play and laugh!  

What’s Your Opinion?

What’s your favorite way to play at the office? Let me know at robin.pou@robinpou.com. 

If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!

Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist

We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders. 

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What is “The Confident Leader”?

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.