What if I told you there’s a powerful, completely free leadership tool that can boost morale, improve collaboration, reduce stress, and even enhance productivity? No special training required. No tech. No budget line item. Just a chuckle. Or, better yet, a good belly laugh.
That tool is laughter.
Yes — laughter. It’s the universal language of joy and connection that too often gets left outside the boardroom door.
We often say “leadership is no laughing matter,” but I want to flip that script. Maybe leadership is a laughing matter. Maybe the very thing that can transform how we lead, relate, and grow together is the ability to not take ourselves so seriously.
John Cleese famously said,
“Laughter connects you with people. It’s almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you’re just howling with laughter.”
And he’s right. Laughter dissolves barriers. It humanizes. In a world where workplaces are often tense, hierarchical, or hyper-focused on performance, laughter opens up space for vulnerability and humanity. It’s a shortcut to genuine connection — the kind that fosters trust and collaboration.
Catherine Rippenger Fenwick goes even further:
“Your body cannot heal without play. Your mind cannot heal without laughter. Your soul cannot heal without joy.”
Leadership isn’t just about organizational results, like revenue and profits — it’s about restoration and wellbeing for ourselves and for our teams. Laughter helps us do that deep, often invisible, work of emotional renewal, by helping us to release harmful feelings and thoughts. It is said that laughter is the deepest form of breathing, meaning that it gets oxygen deep into our cells, bringing physical vitality and energy.
Laughter in Times of Uncertainty
In a world that feels more unpredictable by the day, laughter is one of the few things we can control. Leaders today are navigating constant change — new technologies, shifting work cultures, economic pressures, and teams stretched thin.
It’s a lot.
But laughter reminds us that we are still human. Still creative. Still capable of joy, even in the midst of uncertainty.
When a leader shares a light-hearted moment — a self-deprecating story, a humorous observation, a funny memory — it gives the team permission to breathe, to release, to reset. Laughter doesn’t erase the complexity, but it offers a moment of calm within it. And this space of calm helps us see different perspectives and solutions.
In turbulent times, optimism is not fluff — it’s a competitive advantage.
Laughter Makes Us More Productive
Think laughter is a distraction from productivity? Research disagrees.
A Harvard Business Review article titled Why Laughter Can Make You More Productive summarizes the growing evidence that laughter has measurable effects on team performance. Leaders who inject levity into their teams see greater creativity, stronger team bonds, and even faster problem-solving. Humour creates psychological safety — the foundation for innovation and risk-taking. In short, laughing together helps teams work better together.
What Science (and Stanford) Say About Humor and Leadership
Two Stanford professors, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, have made it their mission to bring humour into the leadership conversation. In their talk on The Power of Humour in Leadership, they share insights from neuroscience and psychology that prove what many of us already know intuitively — humour makes people more likable, more persuasive, and more resilient.
Their key takeaway? Leaders don’t need to be comedians — they just need to notice and share the funny, human moments that already exist.
Bring laughter into your Leadership Today
Here’s your invitation: build laughter into your leadership toolkit.
- Start your next team meeting with a funny (appropriate!) story or meme.
- Share a moment of levity from your day.
- Celebrate a team win with something light-hearted and unexpected.
- Or just smile more.
A Quick Laughter Practice:
Try this simple yet powerful practice when you need a joy reset.
- Sit quietly in a private space.
- Bring to mind a time you laughed so hard you could barely breathe.
- Let that memory bring a smile to your face.
- Gently widen that smile… and let yourself chuckle.
- Let it grow — laugh out loud.
- Then slowly come back down… chuckles… smile… stillness.
Notice the shift? That’s your body releasing tension. That’s your nervous system resetting. That’s joy, doing its quiet, healing work.
Laughter isn’t fluff — it’s fuel. For connection, for healing, and yes, for results.
So if this made you smile, pass it on. Laughter, and joy multiplies when shared.
