“Don’t get so busy making a living, you forget to make a life.” 
Years ago my wife hung that sign next to the door leading to the
garage.  Every day when I left for work, I saw that sign. . . and it
made me think, you know, it’s true.  So often we get consumed by our
careers.  At times, it’s hard to take five seconds to come up and
breathe.  When we get that intense, work becomes a drudgery and our
performance slips.  There needs to be at least a little fun in our work.

I remember coaching american legion baseball a few years back.  We
had a great team, overflowing with talent.  But suddenly we started
losing games.  Players were grumpy and not performing at their
potential.  I explained that we were supposed to be having fun.  After
all, the umpire doesn’t say, “Get to work,” when the game starts.  He
says, “Play ball!”  It’s play, not work (especially at that age.)

We had to do something to lighten the attitude.

We hit on the idea of having “highlight reel” as our last 30 minutes
of practice each day.  In that time, we would set up situations where
the player would dive to make the catch, throw the runner out from his
knees, steal home uncontested, etc., etc., etc.  It was great fun.  We
even started bringing a video camera to the practices so the players
could see how great they really were on video.

An amazing thing happened.

Our players started having fun!  And because they were having fun,
they were performing to a much higher level.  And because they were
practicing diving for the ball, they started doing it (successfully) in
the games.  Everyone started talking about the upper valley bulldogs. 
It was great stuff — and it was fun.  By simply letting the players do
something they really enjoyed as a regular part of practice, we saw a
performance increase of almost double.  And not just an increase, an
increase with a smile and a positive attitude.  It doesn’t get any
better than that.

You can do the same in your business.  The stick is a powerful
motivator.  But it only goes so far.  Even the carrot will only go so
far.  You have to create an environment where the employees want to
give their best of their own free will and choice.  When you do that,
you’ll see miracles in your business.  I believe the best way to do
that is to help employees “sharpen the saw,” as Covey puts it.  Let
them have fun doing what they do, and they’ll pay you back in spades.

Now, how would you put the fun factor into your business?  You’ll have to figure it out.  That’s part of being the boss.