Herb Kelleher has been business’s go-to funny guy for decades. His antics of challenging competing CEOs to wrestling matches and working out lifting “weights” of Wild Turkey bottles are legend. While the rest of corporate America was shaking their heads, he was using humor to build a corporate culture which has delivered 60 consecutive quarters of earnings increases, redefined the airline business, and showed that unions and management can work together. Still not convinced humor belongs in the workplace? There’s more.
Academic researchers like Dr. William Fry Jr. have studied humor for 45 years and found that laughter enhances respiration and circulation, oxygenates your blood, suppresses stress-related hormones in the brain, and activates the immune system. If the health of your employees doesn’t motivate you, the health of your business should. Academic business researchers have produced papers like “Perceived Humor and Social Network Patterns in a Sample of Task-Oriented Groups” and “No Laughing Matter: Patterns of Humor in the Workplace,” finding that humor helps build team spirit, improves morale and productivity, reduces stress, and increases creativity. It also seems to help employee recruitment and retention. Cox Professor Don Vandewalle, chair of the Management and Organization Department, says, “Humor can be a powerful means for top executives to lead by developing a positive climate, putting an audience at ease, and for enhancing social connection.” Vandewalle’s observation: Humor is a leadership skill.
The good news is that every executive can learn to use humor effectively, but the first requirement is to recognize that being funny is an acquired talent, like bluffing cards.
Too many CEOs still think that humor is an occasional joke or line written by someone else into a speech. Humor is like a bag of golf clubs, all different sizes for different terrains and needs. And almost no one is “naturally funny.” True, EDS CEO Michael Jordan pulls lines out of thin air. In a speech on EDS’s turnaround and the need to be more nimble, he quipped that EDS once had more presidents than the UN. However, if you’re one of those who thinks of the great line in the limo back to the office (i.e., too late), not to worry. Most executives get good the old-fashioned way: Practice. Practice. Practice.
Let’s start with the most obvious and public presentations and speeches. When the Frontiers of Flight Museum opened, Tom Leppert, CEO of Dallas-based Turner Corporation, the nation’s largest general building company, was asked to introduce the keynote speaker, none other than Herb Kelleher. Leppert announced to his colleagues that he needed to do a lot more than read Kelleher’s bio. Leppert began his presentation by turning to Kelleher and saying he had always been skeptical of the story of how Southwest Airlines’ business plan was sketched out on a cocktail napkin. Leppert then claimed to have found the actual business plan. Staff members unfolded a huge, white, plastic picnic table cloth with big, black letters saying thing like “Buy Go-Go Boots.” Leppert folded up the cloth and ceremoniously presented it to Kelleher, turned back to the audience, and described how Southwest had “unfolded” in a very similar manner.
After several more paragraphs about how Kelleher had changed the airline industry, Leppert looked over to the legendary executive and said, “Herb, I’ve got a bone to pick with you. Until you came along, a CEO’s job was to bring in the numbers.” Leppert turned back to the audience, saying, “But Herb has added new dimensions to our jobs. Herb promoted Dallas as a fashion capital.” A picture of Herb in drag came on the screen. “He’s involved in every small detail.” Picture of Herb hanging out of a cockpit window with a screwdriver in his mouth. The parade of pictures and commentary went on, with the last being, “And today, we see Herb everywhere.” Picture of Kelleher as Elvis. The audience howled.
The lesson is to get help, value good writing, and practice. Practice not only develops delivery skills, it enhances your own creative skills. Even President Reagan—one of the most renowned laugh-inciting leaders—practiced for decades, corresponded with humorists, developed a relationship with Bob Hope’s great humor writer, Doug Gamble, and developed his own skills. As the President recounted after the 1981 assassination attempt, he had 15 minutes on the way to the hospital to think up the line, “Honey, I forgot to duck.”
Humor needs to appear in many places. American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey may be all business in public, but those close to him say he embraces a dry sense of wit with his fellow colleagues. At one executive committee meeting, he had “007” posters on the wall and James Bond music blasting to play up positive press coverage of Will Ris, who leads government affairs for the corporation (and has almost as many people shooting at him as Bond did.)
Arpey also encourages an atmosphere where executives are comfortable cutting loose. Dan Garton, American’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, often dresses up in special costumes around employees and others in the community. He dressed up as a pirate for a speech he gave to American Express last year to drive home the fact that others are trying to steal AA’s market share, and on Halloween he’s always in costume to meet with employee groups. Given the pressures on American’s employees, Garton says this is a chance to have some fun, remind everyone that there are successes to celebrate, and show people that the executives may take their business challenges seriously but not always themselves.
In fact, poking fun at yourself is important for CEOs, and costumes seem to be a good starting point. Elaine Agather, Chairman of JPMorgan Chase’s Dallas region, appeared in a short, red, velvet Santa “dress,” complete with hat, green stockings, and feathered, red, high-heeled mules to lead the bank’s choir in a public Christmas concert in the library. (And she can sing, too.)
When Tom Falk was promoted from COO of Kimberly-Clark (he’s now Chairman and CEO), he used his maiden internal speech as President at Kimberly-Clark’s global leadership forums to make clear that humor would be a hallmark of his tenure. Falk described his going-away party in Neenah, Wisconsin, en route to Dallas and held up a “gift,” a gigantic pair of Little Swimmers. He quipped, “They call them Big Dippers, I think.” His worldwide audience roared.
American and Southwest and Dallas and Fort Worth stunned the country by agreeing to a way to phase out the Wright Amendment, and Kelleher predictably grabbed headlines by saying that if they could appear together and solve this, “There’s hope for world peace.” I don’t know about world peace, but there’s certainly hope for C-suite inhabitants who want to learn this necessary skill.
Merrie Spaeth is one of the pre-eminent crisis management strategists in the world. After serving as President Ronald Reagan’s director of media relations at the White House, she founded Dallas-based Spaeth Communications in 1987. (Full disclosure: Clients include Turner Construction, and JP Morgan Chase and Kimberly-Clark have participated in Spaeth seminars.) In addition to her CEO duties, Merrie is a lecturer at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business.
