Does Your Managerial Style Permit You To Play At Work?

It used to be that employees were expected to leave their personal selves at home. They were going to “work” after all. And it was understood that work required a different attitude than what was required to be in a marriage, run a household, and/or raise children.

However over time that has changed, and changed quite a bit...at least for employees who are invited to recreational offsites, celebratory wedding and baby showers in the workplace, end-of-day libations etc etc etc.

But what about you as a manager? Do you feel you can play at work? Or are you only allowed to watch while your junior folks engage in what can be inspiring, mind-clearing, and even anxiety-reducing activities?

I’m not saying there’s a right or wrong way for you to behave with regard to playing at work. I am asking you to ask yourself how you feel about your own behavior. And I want to be clear, while some managers feel that it’s cool to serve booze after hours—and for some that’s actually true—I’m not in any way encouraging you to do so.

What I have seen at several companies is team building and even company culture building prompted by managers, senior leaders, and even executives who felt comfortable letting the dividing lines between themselves and those that were junior go by the wayside—at least for the time devoted to “play.” And the resulting camaraderie, trust, and better teamwork was a joy to see.   

What if you introduced more play into your workplace? Can you imagine that it would or could prompt better morale, better team spirit, more actual creativity and productivity? What if it helped your team feel safer to think outside the box, to experiment with their approach to working with you and their team members? What if it paid off with better retention, more earned promotions, and an easier time for everyone when “crunch times” show up?

What do you think? I look forward to your comments.

(Photo Credit: Brian Yap, Flickr)

Jim Sniechowski has published his first novel, Worship of Hollow Gods, at Amazon.com. In Worship of Hollow Gods Jim bears witness to the world of a sensitive, nine-year-old boy, subjected to the underbelly of his Polish Catholic family in working class Detroit. The year is 1950. The family gathers for a Friday night family poker/pinochle party. The outcome reveals a world no one ever talked about then and are forbidden to talk about now---the unspoken, the impermissible, the reality beneath every family’s practiced facade---and what lies beneath when the front has been ripped away. Worship of Hollow Gods is available now in Kindle and paperback for at https://tinyurl.com/hollowgods 

James Sniechowski, PhD and his wife Judith Sherven, PhD https://JudithandJim.com have developed a penetrating perspective on people’s resistance to success, which they call The Fear of Being Fabulous. Recognizing the power of unconscious programming to always outweigh conscious desires, they assert that no one is ever failing. They are always succeeding. The question is, at what? 

Currently working as consultants on retainer to LinkedIn providing executive coaching, leadership training and consulting as well as working with private clients around the world, they continually prove that when unconscious beliefs are brought to the surface, the barriers to greater success and leadership presence begin to fade away. They call it Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous. https://OvercomingtheFearofBeingFabulous.com