Is it a joke or is it humor

I did business with this Japanese businessman for almost 10 years. All that time, I have never seen him smile.

I have heard him groan whenever I asked for a discount. I have heard him whine whenever I refused to order his goods. But I have never seen him smile.

After 10 years of doing business, this Japanese businessman invited me for dinner. Maybe he had to wait that long to invite me because of the discounts I got from him.

That evening, as he brought me to a famous restaurant in Osaka, my friend and I were shocked and surprised. The Japanese guy who never ever smiled before turned out to be really funny. He was a comic actually. And this was way before he even drank saki.

I just didn’t get it. Unable to contain my curiosity, I waited for the opportune moment, then asked, “Miyato San, I have done business with you for almost 10 years. How come I have never seen you smile a single time?”

Mr. Miyato looked at me intently and said something I will never forget. “Francis, smiling in office is prohibited. When boss sees me smiling, boss will think I am not working.”

Wow! This is how diligent they all are. I couldn’t resist asking him another question. “Miyato San, I suppose your boss never smiled either?” And he answered, “How did you know?”

In our culture, we do things differently. We are less uptight, and some of us even love cracking jokes. So much so that sometimes it becomes problematic because the jokes are already inappropriate.

There is no place for green jokes in the work place. But a little humor can certainly do wonders.

Sun Microsystems, for instance, thrives on a culture of wild creativity and off-the-wall thinking. At least once a year, engineers and executives band together to perform a dramatic prank: once, CEO Scott MacNeally found a Volkswagen Beetle parked in his office.

“What we are looking for first and foremost is a sense of humor,” CEO Herb Kelleher told Fortune magazine. “Then we are looking for people who have to excel to satisfy themselves and who work well in a collegial environment. We don’t care that much about education and experience, because we can train people to do whatever they have to do. We hire attitudes.”

When interviewing potential employees, Mitzi Sales, executive director of a nonprofit agency, uses a strict congeniality test: if a person doesn’t smile at least three times during the interview Sales won’t hire them. Why? “Because they’re probably sour people, and in a teamwork situation you need pleasant people.” Sales herself is known to “grin like an idiot throughout the entire interview.” Perhaps that’s the secret to her success...

Jerry Seinfeld, everyone’s favorite TV comedian, had a girlfriend who didn’t laugh. He dumped her.

Ann Landers once said, “Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”

But there is one important thing to note. Don’t confuse joking with a sense of humor. Jokes usually are at someone’s or something’s expense. A sense of humor has more to do with being able to see the absurdity of a situation. Even more important, a sense of humor implies being able to laugh at oneself.

Study the most successful people in your office. Do they smile often? Say hello more? Whatever they do is working, so try to copy a few of their techniques. Soon you’ll actually feel more personable.

I try to find humor in everything, but I refrain from making jokes in the office.

Try visiting my office, and you will see that my people are people with a great sense of humor. The working atmosphere is relaxed, there is a great deal of creativity going on, and you will never ever hear any green jokes in the place.

Why? Because my people are decent, and they understand respect.

People who have a knack for cracking green jokes do not know respect and so they need to learn how to respect themselves first.

Mack McGinnis says, “After God created the world, He made man and woman. Then to keep the whole thing from collapsing, He invented humor.”

(Enhance your leadership skills with Francis Kong this April 1. Attend “Level Up Leadership” at the Rockwell Tent. Only a few seats left. Call Pam or Krisselle of Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. at 632-6872614 or 09178511115 for further details.)