Why Business Leaders Should Have a Laugh

Most of us have sat in meetings where the atmosphere is so tense you can almost hear the strain. Everyone’s earnest. Everyone’s focused. And everyone looks like they’re trying very hard not to say the wrong thing.

Now picture the same room — but someone cracks a gentle, well-timed joke. A ripple of laughter. A few shoulders drop. Suddenly people breathe again. The work hasn’t changed, but the energy has.

It turns out there’s science behind that shift. Humour isn’t just a social nicety or a personality quirk — it’s a performance tool.

The Research: Why Humour Helps Us Work Better

A range of studies point in the same direction: when humour is used positively and appropriately, people perform better, think more creatively and connect more deeply.

A few highlights worth knowing:

• Less stress, more clarity. Research summarised by Psychology Today shows that humour reduces cortisol (the stress hormone) and increases dopamine (the “feel-good” chemical), improving focus, energy and mental agility.

• More creativity and better ideas. A 2022 social-psychology study found a direct link between leader humour and employee creativity. Playfulness boosts divergent thinking — the raw material of innovation.

• Stronger teams and smoother communication. According to Stanford Graduate School of Business, humour helps build cohesion, trust and psychological safety — all essential ingredients for high-performing teams.

• It works… but it must be authentic. A 2025 piece in Harvard Business Review highlights a useful nuance: leaders rated as “outstanding” use humour roughly twice as often as average leaders, but forced or poorly judged humour can backfire. So timing and authenticity matter.

Or, paraphrasing John Cleese: “If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.”
It turns out he was right — and now the neuroscience agrees with him.

Humour as a Leadership Skill, Not a Party Trick

In leadership roles — boardrooms, executive teams, founder circles — humour can feel risky. No one wants to be “that” person who derails the meeting with a joke that lands badly.

But effective humour isn’t about being funny. It’s about being human.

Used well, humour does three important things:

1. Levels the hierarchy. Laughter pulls people out of defensive postures and into connection.

2. Builds psychological safety. People speak more freely when they don’t fear judgement.

3. Unlocks performance. When people relax, they think better, collaborate better and recover from setbacks faster.

It’s not an invitation to turn every meeting into a comedy workshop. It’s a reminder that people do their best work in environments where they can breathe, think and — occasionally — smile.

Creating Space for Play in Serious Work

If you’re a business leader wondering where to start, try this:

• Open a meeting with a light, relevant observation.

• Celebrate small wins with a bit of levity.

• Encourage moments of play in problem-solving sessions.

• Model that it’s okay to be yourself, not a perfectly polished leadership avatar.

The trick is simple: keep the humour inclusive, keep it authentic, and keep it aligned with the moment. When in doubt, let the team lead the tone — they’ll show you what lands.

A Final Thought (and a Small Smile)

What may look “childish” on the surface — play, levity, a shared joke — is often the very thing that helps adults do serious work extraordinarily well. Before I did some research, well-placed humour had already proven itself in all my leadership roles.

So perhaps the next time you or your team look a little tense, you might give permission to loosen up. Not because it’s fun (though it is), but because it works.

And if all else fails, stick on a past episode of Would I Lie to You? on BBC iPlayer — at least you can have a laugh on your own.