The crowd roars with laughter. I’m giggling with them, though I missed the punch line. My wife, Tesa, is laughing too. I ask, “What did he say?”
“I don’t know.”
So why are we both cackling when neither of us knows why? Because laughter is contagious. We can scarcely refrain when those around us crack up. We shouldn’t try. Laughing feels good. Laughing does good.
Endorphins stir. Defenses drop. Human spirits soar. No wonder top presenters leverage laughter.
I love what my friend and colleague, Dianna Booher, once blogged: “Laughter engages, connects and expands your influence as a leader.” And it is lasting, indelible. As another wise woman, Maya Angelou, famously said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
If you laugh, they laugh. If they laugh, they feel good. They remember that.
So are you leveraging laughter in your presentations? If not, why not? Even works for attorneys, accountants, engineers . . . heck, morticians.
“I’m just not that funny,” you say? Nonsense! Look in the mirror.
You see, piggybacking on Dianna’s statement, I believe that the best leaders laugh at themselves. Self-deprecation both humbles and humanizes. It also tends to spark laughter. My mirror reflects a middle-aged balding, soft-bodied white man without a smidgen of rhythm. (I hear you laughing!)
What’s in your mirror? Look! Then just try to hold back laughter. But don’t try too hard. Zig Ziglar used to say such adds pounds. “When you hold in laughter, it reverses itself, travels down and spreads your hips.” You want THAT?
Maybe for you funny’s not physical. Perhaps it’s situational. Another tip is to see your situation as other people do. Fancy your life a sitcom.
Sitcoms are funny because we relate to universal truths. Comedic genius Carl Reiner said, “The absolute truth is the thing that makes people laugh.”
The truth is I am a husband and father of two daughters. I don’t just see my life as a sitcom; it IS a sitcom. So is yours.
Finally, realize that success in this is not always side-splitting. Often chuckles. Even smiles. Start there.
© 2015 Russ Riddle. All rights reserved.