Hello everyone! Thanks for joining me for this post. Today we’re going to talk about having fun in business. My coaching work recently brought me to a certain area of Houston where I used to work during my time with E. & J. Gallo Winery. Driving through this area made me think of David, my boss at the time. We spent a lot of time working together and became close. We did this thing called surveys, which were really hard and called for many late nights, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We stayed friends over the years but unfortunately David passed away from cancer a few years ago. This post is sort of a tribute to him, because he was an amazing guy who knew how to have fun in business. So let’s get right to it!
6 Ways to Make Business Fun
1. Improving- This may be self-evident, but improving yourself personally and professionally is fun. When you grow or get better as a person, in your career, or in your skill set, there’s something enjoyable about it. Getting better is pleasurable, so don’t lose track of the joys of professional and personal improvement.
2. Rally- It’s important to rally around a mutual purpose. Why are you doing what you’re doing? What is the mission from a company standpoint, as well as your personal mission within the company you work in or lead? It’s crucial to keep your “why” or purpose in mind, because that in itself is very fun.
3. Be authentic– It’s vital to be authentic with people on your team. Whether it’s people who report to you or other team members, you must always be authentic. Allow yourself to be vulnerable, real, and raw at some points. You have to admit and share your mistakes, but you must also celebrate your wins together! When you’re in a business where everyone is being real with one another, it’s typically a much more fun environment than you would see in a business where that’s not the case.
4. People– You need to make sure you work towards getting people, yourself included, into the right positions. People enjoy doing things that they’re good at and do well with positions that allow them to grow. Getting yourself into the right position will help you enjoy business more. Sometimes you might be doing something temporarily that you don’t exactly love, so working towards a position that you enjoy more and more each day is super important.
5. Game– Gamify your business. Have some sort of game, competition, or sports type of atmosphere in your business. The best way to do this is to have a set of critical numbers everyone knows about and to keep track of them, perhaps with a scoreboard. Then you can make a game of it and celebrate when you’re winning so that everyone has fun as they reach goals and accomplish things.
6. Cheer– Last but certainly not least, it’s important that everyone cheer each other on. There will be times when you need to challenge each other and times when you need to hold each other accountable, but for the most part you want to cheer each other on. Especially if you’re an owner and part of a leadership team. It is so crucial for everyone to be each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Catch each other doing something right. Catch each other as you excel in your positions.
So those are the six things! Now enjoy yourself, have a fun business, and make it a better than amazing day.
