Introverts and Humor - Can Introverts Bring Their Humor to Work?

Introverts and humor at work: How do you add humor into the workplace when you work with introverts? Motivational business speaker Michael Kerr, the author of The Humor Advantage, offers some thoughts on build a humor-filled, fun, passionate workplace when you work with or are led by those pesky introverts! On more ideas about building a great workplace that drives outrageous results, check out

Hey, Michael Kerr here, the author of The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way To the Bank. A question I get asked very often by journalists and by my clients is what about the introverts. Does the humor advantage apply to them? How do we add humor and more fun into a workplace when we work with those pesky introverts? I can relate because I at heart am an introvert. In fact, according to experts, anywhere from 30 to 50% of the population are introverts, so of course you work with introverts. They're in every field. They're in every company. But here's the deal. When I talk about bringing more fun and humor into the workplace, I am not talking about being the class clown or being silly or fake enthusiasm or being the office joker. I am not even talking about being funny, for goodness sakes. A sense of humor is so much more than that. It's about a sense of humanity and perception and perspective. It's about laughing at ourselves in order to take our work seriously. It's about laughing at those things you have no control over in order to do your jobs more effectively, and that applies as much to the introverts as it does to the extroverts. In fact, it's interesting to me as I researched companies around the world and interviewed leaders, CEOs, presidents of top organizations, companies that value humor, that have a culture that is known for their fun and humor and passion, that very often those leaders are introverts. In some cases they're very shy. Being shy and being an introvert isn't the same thing, but in some cases they are. Yet they've recognized still the importance of building a culture that is fun, that is full of humor, that is full of passion. They may just demonstrate that humor and passion in a different way, in a quieter way than other leaders do, but it doesn't mean they don't value it. Of course, when we bring humor into the workplace, when we talk about creating fun events at work, we do have to be mindful of the introverts and recognize that no, they're not always going to be comfortable doing some of those more outrageous things that some of the extroverts might be totally cool with. So we do have to make sure we are planning events, creating events, creating space for the introverts where they feel comfortable, where they can share their personality, where they know they can still bring their authentic selves to work day in and day out.