Monday, January 13, 2025
Don’t take yourself too seriously — it’s bad for business and your personal brand, says Steve Hutin, the managing director of Rope and Sling Specialists Ltd.
Levity gets a bad name. It makes people think about disobedient children laughing at the back of the classroom, or footballers snorting when a manager is lambasting the team for another ignominious defeat. When someone gets the nervous giggles at a wedding ceremony, or sniggers when a friend slips on the ice outside a supermarket, they often get a nudge in the ribs from a more sincere individual that deems the frivolity inappropriate.
It means we are too often inclined to only see the serious side of an important moment. Not only does this mentality prevent us from some light-hearted relief, but it means we narrow our perspective to the extent that it clouds our judgement. To be able to find humour in the dark is an underrated asset, and one that has stood me in good stead in all facets of my life.
I often find that I can see a situation more clearly once I’ve had a good laugh about it. And it makes sense. It’s proven that laughter releases endorphins into one’s system, which makes a person feel good. I don’t know about you, but I make better decisions when I’m feeling positive. It’s also true that many of the sticky situations life presents, don’t turn out to be that bad after all. Even when the news is inescapably bad, it’s never made worse by trying to see the lighter or funnier side of things.
If you don’t know whether to laugh or cry, try the former first.
Lighten up
I was reminded of the light to be found in levity during our inaugural company awards last December. It’s no secret that 2024 was a challenging year for many people in business, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ widely criticised budget putting the icing — no, pricing — on the cake. I know that many firms didn’t hold Christmas parties or annual celebrations due to the austere measures that they had to implement as autumn turned into winter.
Not only did we buck the trend by celebrating, but we also went ahead with our first ever awards ceremony, held at a gala evening in Swansea, Wales. As I announced the victors in 11 different categories, from Digitalisation to Young Person, in front of 140 staff and guests, I knew we had made the right decision. Winners and nominees were happy with the recognition and even those that weren’t successful sought relief in sharing a joke or engaging in repartee with winning colleagues.
I had to laugh when the Village Hotel receptionist gave me the bill the following morning. After all, just like cancelling the party wouldn’t have made the months prior any easier; or being a bad loser wouldn’t have reversed the judges’ decisions; no amount of tears would have seen the food, beverages, and room rates magically disappear from the receipt.
I certainly have no regrets about hosting an evening of laughter and celebration.
As I told trade media in a subsequent press release, constant expansion and growth doesn’t come without exceptional performances from individuals and teams that execute strategy. Such a dynamic environment can lead to a culture wherein those contributions are overlooked; we wanted to avoid that and create a vehicle whereby we could take a moment to celebrate certain members of staff and high-performing depots.
Congratulations to all our winners:
Depot of the Year: Warrington
Manager of the Year: Stephen Littler
Team Player: Jack Sleeman
Rising Star: Carl Coysh
Young Person: Morgan Wright
Trainer of the Year: Lacey Brown
Digitalisation: Minworth (Jake Folkes)
Safety: Erin Thomas
Lifting Engineer: Derryl Godwin
Outstanding Impact: Paul Smith
Most Nominations: Andy Hawkins
My kind of people
What all these individuals and the nominees — indeed, everyone at the company — have in common is that they have strong personal brands based on loyalty, authenticity, integrity, and a lot of the time, levity. I’ve had a laugh with all of them at some point, even in moments of adversity.
In each instance, we’ve found solutions and looked on the matter with greater clarity than we would have if we’d been too downhearted or defeatist.
I’d encourage all businesses to hold their own awards — as long as they don’t take them too seriously. At heart, they should be a bit of fun, not something that creates an overly competitive environment or encourages winners to give tearful acceptance speeches. The energy surrounding an awards ceremony is a good barometer by which to measure the health of a company’s culture. Take a look around the room as winners are announced.
Too many companies shy away from raising the profile of their employees. We do the opposite. Before a person is a member of staff at RSS, they are a representative of themselves and their family. Again, the extent to which a business champions its talent, says a lot about the values they live and work by. While it’s true that the bigger a person’s profile gets, the more visible they become to peers and competitors, that doesn’t mean a leader or owner should fear they will be poached. Of course, people have left our organisation over the years but, importantly, the right ones come back, and most don’t go anywhere at all, regardless of how often the carrot is dangled.
If company policy is to suppress talent and dim the lights, that says a lot about the anxiety that business is suffering, which usually points to other problems. If an employer is fair and sticks to a clear, long-term plan, people will buy into it. A few grand a year more here or there is scant consolation for leaving behind a winning team and its quest for more silverware.
Whitehurst-Maiden voyage
Talking of big personalities — and employees that show a bias towards levity — it was fun to welcome Leanne Whitehurst-Maiden back to the company in the role of national digitalisation manager. She will principally lead development of our live365 online inspection software, across a national network of soon-to-be 14 depots.
Leanne is perfectly positioned to take live365 onto its next phase of development, which dovetails with an ambitious company-wide training programme. The concept has reached a pivotal point, where we have leveraged successful implementation and seen potential, but it needs a specialist to provide leadership and control — and that’s where Leanne comes in.
It’s worth noting that our aforementioned awards touched upon digitalisation. Jake Folkes, manager, was commended for his oversight on live365, while Stephen Littler, regional manager; and Mark Barnard, operations manager, were recognised for implementing the system through training.
Leanne was just one of four new starters this month (January), with two drivers (Plymouth and Netherton) joining a product specialist at the latter location.
Remember, maintaining a sense of humour goes a long way to success in business, and preserving a personal brand. Once someone loses the ability to laugh, they take a step closer to becoming a corporate robot. And a robotic culture leads to malfunction.
It’s a serious business… LOL
Steve Hutin
Managing Director
Rope and Sling Specialists Ltd
