“Edith, we hope you are better in bed than at the ministry”. To this filthy sentence from a banner of the FNSEA, Edith Cresson, freshly appointed in the first government of Pierre Mauroy in 1981, had this response of genius: “It’s good that I am Minister of Agriculture. As I I’m dealing with pigs, I’ll have to take care of you”. An essential ingredient of leadership, the sense of repartee can get you out of many unpleasant situations in your everyday management. In his book The power of humor (Eyrolles editions), Vanessa Marcié, doctor in information and communication sciences, returns, through testimonials and scientific studies, to the benefits of humor at work and the art of repartee, often useful in the face of the slightly too aggressive joke of his N + 1 or the uninspired exit of a collaborator. This stand-up fan explains how, in such circumstances, you can regain power thanks to this quality.
Who has not found himself one day confronted with a dubious joke, an attack or a criticism in full open space Or in the middle of a meeting? “The most important thing is to answer,” warns Vanessa Marcié from the outset. A good manager obviously does not have to get carried away, but he must react, otherwise he will leave the door wide open to repeat offenders of the bad spirit. We don’t all have the same sense of humor and not everyone has the easy response of a Mitterrand to Chirac in 1988 (“But you’re absolutely right, Mr. Prime Minister”). So you have to learn to work on your sense of repartee. “The most effective is the one that will give you time to fully understand what the person has said, and to use it again to take power”, develops Vanessa Marcié. So be careful not to confuse speed and precipitation, it may seem counter-intuitive, but spontaneity is not necessarily a good advisor. Mastering the repartee requires training, humor is a muscle that you work on every day. What initially looked like an effort eventually becomes a reflex. It will allow you to avoid “brain freeze” and never leave the office with this refrain in mind: “I should have said that”.
A good pun can defuse a situation
Having a good repartee also means getting to know each other well and knowing what type of humor you feel most comfortable with. Analyze the situation, take into account the person opposite and ask yourself the following question: is there a risk of damaging your relationship or not? In your repartee arsenal, don’t forget facial expressions: did you know that looking at the top of your interlocutor’s nose will have the effect of destabilizing him?
Humor also serves to defuse potential conflicts. A good play on words, for example, allows you to change the angle of the situation. Your interlocutor will not return to the same level of anger once you have succeeded in making him laugh, for the simple reason that the brain cannot have two conflicting emotions at the same time. But what if your replica falls flat? Stay humble ! The mere fact of recognizing that you flopped will arouse empathy in those around you. On the other hand, if your reply has offended your collaborator, you must know how to apologize. Finally, if you are the recipient of a joke that you don’t like, remember that in most cases it may just be a simple clumsiness…