Part 2
Smile, crack jokes, write happy emails, and you will glide through all the pressure. Welcome back!
After exploring in the last blog post why humour is important in communication, let us now look at how you can actually use it effectively and without regrets.
Before that though, learn the golden rule of comedy during work and around your professional peers:
Appropriate humour can work wonders. Inappropriate humour can also work wonders — but in a not-so-pleasant manner.
Hence, be very careful while using this tool with your choice of words and expressions. Certain situations will remain terrible, no matter how funny your joke is, and the audience will neither laugh nor applaud.
So here is what you can do to add humour to your work and your personality as a PR professional:
- Long meetings: Sounds boring, right? Spice it up with humour. A little bout of collective laughter can help you refresh and go back to the mundane stuff with revived energy. Keep some light one-liners handy and as soon as you spot a yawn or sense a disinterest, just share one.
- Keep your emails lively: Emails are probably one of the most direct and to-the-point communication implements. But no rulebook of communication says that it is unlawful to use some emoticons here and there or to pepper your email with a little humour. Try this and see the responses for yourself. This is a tried-and-tested method – which I have lived by for 10 years of my career – without any negative feedback.
- Presentations/meetings: Keep them sparkling and lively. Use doodles, create some cartoons, use emojis! Trust me, people will look forward to your presentation, even if it’s about some binary, digit-dotted programming language that troubleshoots big data intricacies. I am sure we all have better topics, too.
- Big smiles and hand-waves: No one ever lost a client or irked a manager due to happy greetings. This can change the way people look at you. One of the best methods to share your positive energy with people is with a warm handshake and a wide, glistening smile. No second thoughts!
- When in communication, communicate: If it is a long day at the office with endless meetings and loads of work, talk to someone around you. It could be anyone: if you are from editorial, speak to someone from digital; if you are from management, speak to someone from IT. Try speaking to someone you haven’t spoken to before. What better way of unwinding and connecting with someone than being comically equipped with punchlines, quips, or light-hearted jokes?
You don’t have to be a stand-up comedian to use a little humour in your day-to-day professional life. These simple small steps will have a visible impact, adding not just to your professional qualities but enhancing positive outcomes.
Keep trying and keep up that smile…yes, the one on your face right now!
Ritika Sharma is English Editor at Cicero & Bernay Public Relations, an independent PR agency headquartered in Dubai offering new-age public relations consultancy to the UAE and across the MENA region. | www.cbpr.me
