2351 - Incorporating Joy and Humor into Your Leadership Style with Elizabeth Walker

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0:58With us right now, it's Elizabeth Walker. Elizabeth, you are the host of the Dear Business Coach podcast. You are also a workshop facilitator and speaker, and you talk about a fun topic, and that's comedy in the workplace, which that's going to be fun. Excited to get into that. Before we get into your superpowers and the work that you do, Elizabeth, I always love, and sorry, I didn't let you know about this ahead of time, but I always love kind of finding out what high-level leaders do when they're not at work. What do they do for fun, hobbies, games, music, movies, TV shows that you might be into?

1:34What have you been geeking out on lately outside of work? Oh, you know what? I'm going to a dance class this weekend in New York for fun. Just I don't know if I am going to make it through the class or not. I've tried a little bit of dancing when I was a kid, you know, in dance lessons and that sort of thing. But I think I think I think I should try something, try something from the pros. Well, that's incredible because you're down in Virginia going up to New York for a dance class. What type of dance? Well, so this studio does your traditional jazz tap and ballet, but they also have an African drumming, an African, I almost said drumming, an African class.

2:24And so that's, I think, more of an exercise. It's a drop in type of workshop class. So I'm excited about that. Wow. Well, very cool. That's what what is it about? What is it about dance that you enjoy? so it's just a fantastic form of exercise and I have a couple of friends who went to school for that and I haven't really dabbled into it so I think I think it's a good time to try some new exercise I uh that's kind of funny because I um I I normally so my wife and I go see a lot of live music here locally in Orlando. And oftentimes, you know, we'll go see shows that, you know, they're playing some dance and party music.

3:11And we went to, we went to a Depeche Mode tribute band and man, I burned a lot of calories that night. It's a lot of fun. So, and that, but that's, trust me, that is not choreographed dance in any way. Josh having a good old time. So Elizabeth, tell us about, I want to get to the podcast in a moment, but I really, you got my curiosity. When you talk about comedy in the workplace, what is that all about? Right. Well, actually, one of the first things in a professional workshop regarding, as you said, comedy in the workplace is going after some misconceptions, pulling those out of our heads right up top to make sure that we answer these questions about like, is this how to tell a joke in a speech?

4:09Or am I trying to make jokes at the workplace? Like you said, that's kind of what it sounds like when we say it like that. Actually using comedy in terms of leadership, in terms of, you can use it in a group setting. So yes, it is comedy during speaking, thinking about connecting with your audience over a compelling story during a speech. And also sometimes you might just find that being able to share stories that have a comedy function to them or a comedy strategy to them makes you a better communicator when sharing experiences with your co-workers. So especially if you're a team leader, one of the first things to recognize is that some of the best comics know how to make fun of themselves.

5:06And so one of the first things that my partner Clayton and I talk about is thinking about ways that you're looking to connect with your own team. And that does trickle to your customers as well when you are thinking about partnerships in that form too. So a little bit of self-effacing humor doesn't hurt. Right, right. There's an art to it. Elizabeth, how do you teach comedy? And like, maybe you could just give us, could you give us just maybe a little sample of one aspect of this? Because I'm curious about like how you would even begin to teach this so clayton fletcher is my partner who i've brought on a year before last for several a couple workshops now and so we've worked together a couple of times with groups that are as i said team leaders in some way and what what the first thing that Clayton will do is get us to think about an underdog story.

6:12So I can share with you that I have tried my hand at standing in front of a group kind of on the fly with his coaching to try to share a story with you. Let me tell you about a time when I was the underdog and that's really the beginning exercise that gets us up out of our chairs. You know, that's so valuable because, and I think about the application, Elizabeth, to business owners and leaders, those who are content creators. And sometimes I wonder about this. I think that there is certainly those personas, you know, on social media, and it's look at my fabulous life. And I think that that can be aspirational and maybe different people have their personalities, but I don't know that for me, I don't really connect with that.

7:13But to me, there's something that truly is like, it's just magnetic about someone who's not afraid to, you know, again, be make fun of themselves. If we're connected on Facebook, you'll find that I I make fun of myself pretty much on the daily. Yeah. And I, I admire, I mean, I, you know, I do that because I don't know, maybe it's my own insecurity because I don't want to come across as, you know, braggadocious or whatever, because that I don't like that in other people. So I don't want to be like that person. And yeah, sometimes it's, you know, it's, I'm being over the top or overly silly and I don't really feel like that or really think about myself in that way.

7:57But I don't know, it just it feels more fun, I guess. Yeah. Right. So you don't want to you don't want to feel like you're actually putting yourself down. No, I don't. You know, it's not it's not disrespectful to oneself. No, it's actually a way to bring someone in on on the joke. So that's something that I learned recently from taking the, being an active participant in my own workshop. I'm hosting, but I'm the student. You know how that goes. And so the art form to that that I find really fascinating, right, is finding what is something that makes you laugh. You are writing for yourself a little bit.

8:46And also, I want to share this with you as in, have you ever felt this way before? And maybe we find a common ground there together. Yeah. You know, when we speak lightly about, you know, our insecurities, our fears, concerns, but we do it in kind of a fun, you know, connective way, I think it just relieves pressure. And I would also say, you know, to those of us who sometimes, no, legitimately feel insecure about something, I feel like it's such a superpower to diffuse that insecurity by joking about it. I mean, maybe not everyone's willing to do that because it's a little too sensitive, but I know for me, it's been freeing for me to kind of laugh at my own quirks.

9:33And it's almost like when you laugh at it, it loses its power. That's exactly how I feel. And I think a lot of people would say that yes and also uh to to acknowledge that it is gives other people permission to come to you with things they might be shy about so that's a a an aha moment that i have and you know when we when we have these workshops is yeah well wow i can build trust this way. Tell me about, Elizabeth, your podcast and who you talk with. And to our friend that's listening, simple, just do a quick search in your podcast app. It's called Dear Business Coach Podcast. Who do you talk to and what do you talk about?

10:20That's right. Thank you. And so industry experts, coaches, and executives. And what happens is I get to play the startup role. I get to play help I need career counseling role. I get to ask questions that maybe you're afraid to ask. Sometimes I think, you know, I know just enough about a lot of topics that I really need expert help everywhere. So when I talk to experts, right, that might be someone who's teaching us about soft skills that might be someone who's teaching us about scheduling or blocking. I have experts that have come from the comedy background. My comedy coach is actually a best-selling author who was on the show as a coach selling his workshop to executives, but also the book and how to bring this into the workplace so you can come on the show to give yourself an opportunity to share your own work as well.

11:33Now, it's also important to know that roles in your field matter, so you don't necessarily need to have a PhD to be on the podcast as a coach. You know, you might actually have your own leadership position that is worth highlighting to your marketplace as well. Excellent. It's the Dear Business Coach podcast. Your website is dearbusinesscoachpodcast.com. And Elizabeth, anything else to our friend that's been listening on next steps and how they might engage with you? Obviously, you teach this in the workplace as well. So I don't know if there's information on your website or kind of what are next steps for folks?

12:17Thank you. Yeah, dearbusinesscoachpodcast.com slash buy now. You can actually enter your information there to get a quote for me to come to your team or your conference to present the workshop. So you can actually book an appointment with me directly right there on that link. Elizabeth Walker, the Dear Business Coach podcast. Again, a speaker, workshop facilitator. Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining us. Excellent. Thank you so much. What fun. I hope you have a great day.

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