Laughter and Leadership | Ep #114

Hey, I'm Chris Placke, host of the Lead you'd Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy. And whether you're just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use right now, today to improve how well you lead your team. Let's go ahead and get.

Hey, hey. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm so happy to have you here today. I'm Chris Plackey. I will be talking with you today about laughing, which I love to do. And before I do that, though, I have some housekeeping things I want to share with you. So first of all, if you're listening to this and you are a certified Life Coach school coach, you want to become an advanced leadership coach. You want to get advanced certification as a life coach through the Life Coach School, we are going to be conducting a 12 week leadership coach certification program and it will be starting very soon. Go to leadershipcoachcertification.com and you can learn everything you need to learn about it. And we are currently accepting enrollments, but we're not going to be accepting a ton of people. So. So if this has been on your mind, you want to learn how to coach leaders, you want to dig into this space more so than maybe you do already. I would love to work with you. I have been coaching and developing leaders for 26 years and I actually have already about 30 certified leadership coaches that I have certified through my work over the course of the years. So this is incredibly exciting. The work is going to be really powerful. I am going to be teaching you four frameworks that I use to diagnose, assess, triage, and then support my clients through their development as a leader, using also the tools that I learned through the Life Coach School. So it's a very integrated program and I put together a video series for you to learn about it. But you need to go to leadershipcoachcertification.com to get the details. But we are currently open for registration, so if you haven't been on the waitlist and you don't know about it now you.

Secondly, the how to CEO program is booming and we are making some changes to how we're accepting clients. And so I want to make sure you know what that is because I know there's a lot of you who think about things before you take the plunge. So unlike in the past where you could really just register if you were on the wait list, we are now requiring that we meet all of our clients. And in order to do so, you need to come to a Bring it session. And Bring it sessions are things that I'm going to be. I'm going to be offering these a couple times a month and it's an opportunity for you to receive some real life coaching with me and experience what it's like to work in this program. From there, you will be invited to register. This program is, in my mind, pretty exclusive because we do work with some, frankly, very high profile women and some who aren't high profile yet but want to be. And we want to be discerning for both of us involved. So for you as a client and for me and for me as a coach about who participates in this program, because I think the level of the student, the level of the client, also drives the level of the conversation and the experience for everybody else. So if you know that you want to work with us, but you're just kind of still checking it out or you aren't sure, regardless, we do need you to come to a Bring it session. So those will be available. If you go to CEO bring it.com you'll be able to see when the next session is. You can sign up. You have to complete a quick series of questions and then you'll need to RSVP as well to make sure that you'll be on the call. Okay, so more details@CEO bringit.com so today I want to talk about laughing. So it's an interesting conversation that my husband and I had over the weekend. We were kind of just talking about, you know, we've all been inside.

Stuck at our house forever and we miss people. He and I went to dinner for the first time in like a year. And he said, you know, we were talking about maybe he's trying to get together with some people. And it was just an interesting conversation. I don't know if you all have this, but some, if you're a couple, like, there's always like one person in the couple that you both get along with better than the other. I don't know, it's like, it's when you can find a couple where you all get along. It's so great to all get along. And we were talking about a few different folks that we kind of know that these aren't close friends. But I said, you know, one of the challenges for me about the women anyway in these marriages is they don't laugh. They don't laugh. They're serious. It's not even that they're serious. They Just don't laugh. Like I like out loud cafa.

Laughing.

I want to laugh. These people, they're nice people. Nothing wrong with anybody. Just no laughing. And so then what ends up happening for me because I want to laugh is guess what I do. I laugh at myself and I turn into a class clown. And we were talking about sometimes on these groups that I go to that are lots of women that are very about the business. You know, I'm on these calls being silly because I want to laugh. I want to laugh. And so it really got me thinking about work, of course, because everything to me is about leadership. I really think about this. And I thought, okay, so this is fascinating. I do laugh a lot. I laugh a lot with my team. I laugh a lot with my girlfriends, and I laugh a lot with my clients. I laugh even when my clients are crying.

But not at them. We just have to find the humor. Listen to me. There's all sorts of shit going on in the world. Life's tough. Can we please laugh? Levity is a leadership skill. Can you bring levity to even the most intense moments? Now, I think that you'll find if you know people who know me, I can be quite firm and serious if I need to be. But that is not an edge I use often, which I think actually is a good thing. We overuse loses its authority, and b, it makes you very unapproachable. And I know part of what makes what I do feel so powerful for me is the authenticity of our connection that I have with my clients and they have with me. You don't get a version of me in this program that I do. You get me. Which is maybe not a good thing, depending on your perspective. But I like to laugh. And I really want to invite you if you are in a leadership role and you don't laugh, can we work on it? Can you ask yourself, why are you afraid to be silly, funny? Do you think laughing is immature? Do you think it makes you lose credibility? Maybe you do. I don't. I find people who can be find the humor and that moment in anything so endearing. So real laughter is a form of connection. It is a way to be seen and to see others. Like, really in my closest friendships, we laugh. We laugh. I've actually always cried when I laugh. Like, people make fun of me. My face turns beat red and I literally cry. It's been a problem my whole life because my makeup would run down my face and my nose would start to run. Terrible laugh reflex. I really. It consumes me. But that is nothing better than laughing so hard you can't breathe. Right? It's like the feeling on the planet. And we know it's contagious. Have you seen those videos of the guy? There's a video of a guy on a butt on a subway. I think it's in England. And he's pretending to be reading something hysterical. And he's just all into this book and he's reading it and he's laughing and he has the best laugh. Just laugh. And by the time he's done, the entire car is laughing. They don't even know what he's laughing at. Just laughing at the guy's laughter. So your laughter when you're in a leadership role is so contagious. It's spirited. It's human, right? Smiling. Have you ever paid attention like, I watch even politicians, There are politicians who don't smile. Have you ever noticed? I want a leader. I want a politician. I want a CEO, I want a boss. I want a person in my life who's got authority in my influences, my outcomes. I want them to be able to smile and laugh and enjoy themselves and me. So I'm telling you this for a few reasons. First of all, I think you have to get that if you ever think you're going to work with me.

I coached a woman this morning who is having a really hard time. But you know what? We got some laughter and I could hear the smile by the time we were done. I think that leaders who laugh are leaders who have fun. I think that leaders who have fun create better cultures. I think that leaders who laugh and have fun and create better cultures create connection that's based on authenticity and truth. I believe that is one of the most potent forms of engagement you could focus on. Laughter is a release. And in times of difficulty, right now, the more you can foster opportunity for people to have releases is great. Now, there's a difference between laughter because we're telling jokes and we're making fun of people and just genuine.

Noticing the obscurity and the randomness of the world. Can you laugh? Will you let yourself laugh? Pay attention. Do you laugh a lot? Maybe you do. I wonder why do you not laugh? I wonder why. What do you make laughing mean? What do you make it mean when you see other people laughing? What do you make it mean when you hear me laughing? I've heard a lot of you. I think one of the most common things I hear from people is they say, love you laughing.

And here's what's hysterical. Look at this. There's nobody else here. If you're watching this video. If you're not and you're just listening, there's nobody else around. And I'm still finding myself incredibly entertaining and laughing. So I just love to work with women who want to find this space in themselves, because this, to me, is where we're going to change the world. That authentic part of who you are, not the one that you've had to put on, not the one that you've been passively without paying much attention, but the one who can see and experience all of it. The pain of the. Like, this woman I coached this morning is in so much pain, but she's willing. And then I also told a joke and I got to help. And then she's also willing to laugh. Like, okay, we can't. We have to laugh at that. Come on, you guys. That really happened. One of the things I say to my clients all the time is about, like, if they have an employee problem, I'm like, did they know people were watching them?

They know people. They don't have the invisibility cloak on, right? They know people can see them doing that in the world.

We have to laugh. We have to find room for laughter. I believe that laughter is a leadership asset. I believe that giving people glimpses into who you are and letting them see you is an asset. I do not believe that a version of you, but not all of you, is going to help you lead authentically. And learning how to integrate laughter, the vulnerability of laughter, of chuckling, of giggling.

Is so critical. So I wrote a whole blog about this because I just feel so strongly about it. And I wrote this one line that I wanted to share with you and leave with you because we've heard that laughter really is the best medicine. And I write that, truth be told, those of us who know this also make the best healers. So if you are a leader, I believe you're in a position to heal. You're in a position to heal people's perspective of authority, power, dominance, success, potential, collaboration, communication. You have so many opportunities to heal the wounds of people's past experience with either other leaders in business or other leaders in their lives. If laughter is one of the best medicines, then as a woman who is leading, you also have this as an asset to heal, to create spaces and places for people to come and be human and be seen and be cared for and also be held to the highest possibility and potential of themselves. I wonder what you think about what I'm saying. I always love to know you can always email us hello at Chris Plackey or DM me@instagram Chris Plackey, Coach, if you don't follow us already, go there, please. Something to think about.

I'll leave you with a laugh, because.

Why not, right? Let's have a good time, y'. All. Life's too short. If I Learned anything in 2020, man, bring on the laughter, bring on the silly. Bring on the fun. Life's tough, y'. All. We all have our moments. I get it. I never want to minimize those, but I do not want to park on them.

I want to laugh. I want to be with people who want to laugh. How about you? I'll talk to you soon.

One more thing before you go. In a world of digital courses and online content, I like to work with my clients live. Because I know that when you have someone you can work with, ask questions of, and meet with, you're so much more likely to get the success that you want. So head on over to howtoceolive.com to learn more about our very exciting, very exciting, exclusive program just for female entrepreneurs. We'll see you there.