😕 What does leadership mean to you? This is the question I posed to a room of senior newsroom managers at a recent workshop. Laura Bonilla had a surprising answer: she said she sees her role as a manager of a big team of journalists as making sure people are having fun at work.
😂 Joy is taboo in many offices. But some organisations, like The New Humanitarian, think leaders should cultivate a culture of joy, pride, and excitement.
😒 James Timpson, former chief executive of a UK chain of key-cutting shops, now Minister for Prisons in the new Labour government, believes that trusting his staff boosts what he calls the “happy index”.
🤨 Sceptical journalists who become managers seem to have a particularly hard time learning to trust their staff, says Yukari Iwatani Kane.
��🏽‍♀️ Research shows that play and humour help enhance learning, productivity and engagement.
😹 What can you do to make your workplace more joyful?

Organisations should train managers to recognise their own preferred styles and those of their team members and boss.

They need to make sure that leadership teams have a mixture of styles. Don’t just promote the pioneer or driver and assume an integrator or guardian will be happy to play a supporting role.

Organisations must also reward invisible – and usually underappreciated - care work, often done more by women, for example by setting up peer networks to support staff.

🥇 What culture works best to motivate employees?
📋 Some organisations favour strict top-down management, while others, like Netflix and Zalando allow employees more freedom.
📹 In the media industry, many companies have relatively flat hierarchies that suit journalists' desire for autonomy, while leaders at public broadcasters often report having a more conformist style.
👔 Much depends on the personal style of those at the very top, but a mismatch can lead to a serious culture clash.
🔄 Any leader who wants to consciously shift culture needs to plan carefully and communicate well, especially when times are tough.