Another (possibly surprising) element I think Leaders need to be responsible for

In my opinion, one of the many responsibilities of a leader is to influence the body and brain chemistry of your team members!

What do I mean by this?

I was involved in one of the many virtual meetings we all have in the post Covid way of working this week, and as I often try and do, we had five minutes of “general chat” before moving to the main agenda.  On this occasion, it was great to see that this resulted in multiple participants literally crying with laughter around an amusing story shared by one of our team members.

Stewart Black in May 2020 during lock down wrote a Harvard Business Review Article “Laughter Will Keep Your Team Connected — Even While You’re Apart”

In the article when discussing virtual working rather than being together in the office he explained “The problem is us, specifically the fact that that we haven’t evolved socially — or even neurologically — to the point where we can bear much isolation. So much of our wellbeing, and by extension what makes us productive, is predicated on physical proximity.”

He went on to say one surprising casualty by removing physical proximity – “Laughter.”

I was staggered to read recently that we start life as children laughing between 300 and 400 times per day and this reduces by adulthood to about 18 times per day due probably to increased responsibilities, stress, and the shift in focus toward more serious aspects of life.

The vast majority of those 18 times we are laughing with others. Just as everyone starts yawning when just one person yawns, most people can’t help but laugh when those around them do.

Whilst it was written during a lockdown environment Black predicted correctly  “that it is very likely that after the crisis is over, more people will work more often from home alone, which means the laughter issue is here to stay.”

I think this is a real challenge when working from home in solitude and this is another significant down side of working from home that is rarely mentioned.

Ask yourself how many times do you laugh during a day of back to back Zoom meetings? 

Black goes onto explain “no matter how much better the tech gets, social behaviour and neurochemistry evolve over thousands of years.” So this is an issue that we as leaders need to acknowledge and address.

When we laugh, our body releases two key chemicals. First, our pituitary gland releases endorphins into our blood that trigger feelings of pleasure. Secondly, our brain releases dopamine — a neurotransmitter that creates a sense of happiness.  

So, when taking on the job of a leader, you might not have thought that it would be your responsibility to influence the body and brain chemistry of your team members. But in today’s hybrid working world, I think that’s exactly what we need to be doing. 

As always would value your thoughts in the comments below.