By Emily Gallo, senior vice president and general manager of Cardinal Health™ OptiFreight® Logistics
Building trust as a leader is no small task, and in today’s environment it has never been more important. With ever-changing pressures, your team has probably navigated the challenges of burnout in one way or another.
When employees enjoy the work environment they are in and can feel safe enough to take risks or speak up, it becomes a catalyst for combatting burn out. It builds trust and ultimately improves team outcomes. As leaders, we're responsible for setting that tone by showing up authentically.
I strive to show up as a leader who always seeks out ways to stretch and grow as a person, and I am not one to take myself too seriously. Why? To me, working in the mission-driven arena of healthcare means that at its core, our business is rooted in the experience of being human. To find the best ways to build team trust and ultimately advance patient care, we have to lead by example and embody that humanity and humility every day.
I recently had the opportunity to deliver a presentation at the SMI Spring 2026 Forum to share more about this with fellow senior supply chain leaders across the industry. I talked about the important and fun role that laughter plays in allowing employees to show up with authenticity.
Building the foundation for trust and psychological safety
Many senior leaders may acknowledge humor’s value at a personal level but often underestimate its contribution to team building. When tasked with high-pressure decisions and robust projects, environments rooted in intensity or seriousness do not enhance performance. But managers who naturally incorporate humor tend to create environments where teams feel safe, connected and understood. That's how you develop a high-performing team.
In fact, one study by researcher Wayne Decker, cited in Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas’ book, Humor, Seriously, found that managers who are perceived to have a sense of humor are rated by subordinates as 23% more respected and 25% more pleasant to work with.
On a physiological level, laughter is a signal of trust. When we laugh together, our bodies release oxytocin — often referred to as the “trust” or “bonding” molecule. This biological response helps to quickly create and deepen connectivity and trust between individuals. Psychological safety is the bedrock of effective teams; that connection can be the difference between a team that simply complies and one that genuinely collaborates.
I’ve seen this firsthand in seemingly small moments. At our OptiFreight® Logistics town halls I often begin with a personal story, usually with a bit of levity woven in. Recently, I shared how humor helped build community for me and fellow passengers on a work flight when the luggage belt broke at our gate. It was an early flight, we were crowded on the passenger bridge, and it wasn’t ideal. But we rallied together to help get our luggage unloaded, and with a little laughter, we made the situation more bearable together. We created a human conveyer belt, pushing one bag after another down the line until it reached its owner. I was so inspired at that moment that I took a 5-second video of the bags wheeling past me to share with my team.
When I couldn’t find my bag at the end of this process, I took a beat and rewatched my video, realizing that the one bag I had recorded shooting past me was my bag! Laughing at myself, I looked up to find it right outside the door to my gate ... a prime touch point on humanity for my team later on.
When I finally shared this with the team (right), they laughed and I could immediately feel people relax. It empowered them to speak more freely together. Ideas surfaced that hadn’t earlier. The takeaway from my story wasn’t about the joke itself but rather showing a moment of being human as a leader, creating psychological safety and allowing the team to engage more openly and honestly.
The purpose of my sharing stories like this isn’t entertainment; it’s connection. These moments remind my team that we can all laugh at ourselves, learn from our mistakes and grow together. It grounds us in acknowledging that each of us brings a unique strength to the table, and when we come together, we can troubleshoot through any challenge.
By building trust and psychological safety, humor adds two very key factors to solving the equation of peak team performance: motivation and innovation.
Humor as a motivator
Research from Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker finds that leaders who incorporate humor are perceived as nearly 28% more motivating and admired. That doesn’t mean leaders need to be stand-up comedians. It means we need to be human — showing warmth, humility and perspective. It means we need to establish a work environment that builds connection.
Even more compelling, that same research also reveals that when leaders lean into humor, their teams tend to be about 15% more engaged and satisfied. When your team feels safe and is engaged, success follows.
In my experience, teams are more willing to go the extra mile for leaders who can balance seriousness of purpose with lightness of spirit. Humor is a powerful reminder that we’re all human and have a shared experience. So, on days when the work feels hard, we have an engaged team of supporters around us to turn challenge into opportunity.
How humor sets the stage for innovation
All of the things I’ve highlighted above — psychological safety, trust and motivation — are essential for creative thinking, too. People don’t share bold ideas if they’re worried about being shut down or judged. If you want out-of-the-box ideas from your team, empower them to laugh together. It will help them feel comfortable, which allows them to access higher order thinking needed to solve the complexities of your business.
According to The HOW Report, a comprehensive study of organizational effectiveness conducted by HOW Institute for Society, employees in high-trust environments are 32 times more likely to take risks that could benefit their company. And get this ... they’re also 11 times more likely to see higher levels of innovation compared to competitors.
Why does this matter? Let’s think about my team at Cardinal Health. When a critical supply chain link is disrupted or a hidden challenge surfaces, as it often does, resilience and creativity are required of our team to keep the customer supported through the turbulence. When you can find humor in the chaos, it can relieve tension and help people connect to solve problems quickly and efficiently, even shining light on ideas that otherwise probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day. In difficult moments, humor can turn potential breakdowns into breakthroughs.
While humor won’t solve every problem, it can give you a competitive edge. When incorporated thoughtfully and inclusively, it strengthens trust, boosts morale, increases engagement and unlocks innovation. In a complex, high-pressure world, it is one of the most powerful leadership approaches we have.
Editor’s note: Emily Gallo, senior vice president and general manager of Cardinal Health™ OptiFreight® Logistics, joined the SMI Spring 2026 Forum in April 2026 to provide insight on the role of laughter in leadership. This is an excerpt from what she shared with other senior leaders who strive to make a difference every day with positive actions in leadership.
In her role at OptiFreight® Logistics, Gallo is focused on leading a team that is building tech products to innovate the way healthcare supply chain leaders manage logistics and remove cost. Previously at Cardinal Health, Gallo led executive customer engagement strategy and several medical product businesses.