Newsletter - May / June 2005

So Many Ways to Have Fun at Work

How much fun are you having at work at the moment? When I’m running workshops for clients I often begin by saying today we are going to have some fun together and then I ask “Is that OK with you?’ The response is always a resounding YES! I then go on to say “Well fun is compulsory from this moment forward!”

I’ve learned from years of presenting to people that if you don’t have fun they will quickly switch off, get bored and allow their mind to wander onto other things rather than listening for the message their organisation has paid me to deliver.

So my challenge to you is how much fun are you having at work? If you are the team leader, what are you doing to make work a fun place to be? If you are a team member what are you doing to make work fun for you and your colleagues? What’s that I hear you saying? We are paid to come to work and do our jobs, no one said anything about having fun here as well!

The problem with a lot of work places is just that kind of attitude, you are paid to do a job, you don’t have to enjoy it. Think back for a moment over your career, for some of you this might take a while! Think about the jobs you’ve had that have been the best job, what made it the best job?

Was it the people you worked with? Was it the money you were paid? Was it the independence you had to manage your own time as you pleased? Well those are all elements for me of some of the best jobs I've ever had and the last element that made them stand out from the rest was that I looked forward to going to work because it was a fun place to go.

Fun at work can be sooo easy. It can be as simple as sharing your best joke with anyone who will listen at morning tea or it can be as complex as having an organised fun day where you encourage everyone to come dressed to a theme and give prizes for the best dressed worker.

Having fun is simple if you put your mind to it and it is infectious. If you are happy, chances are you will share that happiness with others in the workplace. Everyone wants to work in a happy workplace, so go on make an effort to have fun.

If you are stuck for things to do to have fun, here’s a few ideas:

1. Have a dress in bad taste day
2. Have a tell a joke competition
3. Organise a guess the baby photo competition
4. Put on morning tea for your team for no reason at all
5. Order in pizzas for lunch on Friday for the team (agree to share the cost)
6. Support the team's chosen charity and organise a Gold Coin Donation for morning tea.
7. Perform a random act of kindness for someone in your team. Give them flowers, send them home early, give them a scratch it ticket.
8. Organise a crazy tie and scarf day
9. Formally recognise one team member each week for "Their outrageous efforts to avoid have fun at work"
10. Smile a lot, it's infectious!

Having fun isn’t rocket science, it’s simply about thinking of ways to engage the people in your team and allowing them to play. Now some of you may be thinking this will take a lot of time and productivity may decrease. In all the teams I have worked with, that have adopted fun as a necessary element in their team, productivity has risen.

Go on give it a try, have some fun today!

Balance the art of leadership with the science of management and watch your profits soar

Guest Author Ian Berry

Sadly leadership has become a buzz word and despite all the fuss about it very few people get it. Of equal concern is the spin-off; many people have forgotten about management. Real leadership needs real management if it is to be of real benefit.

In my view real leadership is the art of inspiring people to bring everything they are to everything they do. Real management for me is the science of making it easy for people to bring everything they are to everything they do. We need both working in harmony with one another if we are to create remarkable workplaces that attract and retain magnificent people, both staff and customers.

Real Leadership boils down to 5 actions: Questioning, Visioning, Engaging, Inspiring and Mentoring. For optimum performance to occur these must be balanced with 5 management actions: Focusing, Systemizing, Measuring, Following, and Coaching.

Real leaders ask questions such as where are we going? what happened?, what do you think? Real leaders see a clear vision of the future and are able to articulate it in ways that inspire others to turn vision into reality. Real leaders are excellent mentors acting as keepers of culture and are those we turn to when we have commitment issues.

Real managers help people to focus on the right things and co create systems both technological and operational that support people in being the best they can be. Real managers measure progress towards achieving agreed goals and follow up on agreed actions to ensure we are forever closing the gap between current performance and possible performance. Real managers coach others in order to improve competency so that we are both performing and growing.

Are you a leader and a manager? For those of you at the top of your organisation you should be leading more than managing, nevertheless you must be doing both to some degree. For those of you on the frontline you should be managing more than leading however again you should be doing both to some degree. Have you got the balance right for you?

Possible Actions

• Get some feedback from staff and customers as to how well they feel you do the right thing (leadership) as well as do things right (management)
• Spend some time evaluating how much time you spend on the business (leadership) compared to how much time you spend in the business (management)
• Have an independent expert evaluate your effectiveness (leadership) and your efficiency (management) balance
• Monitor your work for a fortnight and see if you the right balance for you between relationships (leadership) and tasks (management)
• Ask yourself often do I follow my gut instincts (leadership) yet act logically (management)?
• Ask yourself often do you trust people (leadership) and yet have measures of control in place that act as checks and balances (management)?
• Forever ask yourself are you thinking about why and what (leadership) as well as how and when (management)?

© Ian Berry 2005 All rights reserved

Ian Berry is based in Brisbane, Australia. He works internationally as a business conference and meeting speaker and advisor to business leaders, owners and directors.

Ian is a leading authority in how to find the balance between the art of leadership and the science of management, harmony between life and work, and the awesome positive impact these discoveries have on productivity and profit.

For further information visit www.ianberry.au.com or call 61 (0) 418 807 898