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We talk a lot about one of the core concepts of the FISH! Philosophy, which is Be There. Be There is all about showing up for our team and our coworkers, treating them like real humans with real successes, challenges, and emotions–both positive and negative. By being there for others in the workplace, we create and foster these simple human connections that result in stronger team bonds, more open and transparent communication, and ultimately greater achievement by everyone. But it’s not always as simple as it sounds–like any other practice, in order to Be There for others you need to build a habit out of offering this type of support and compassion. And as we all know, building habits isn’t easy. Various sources pin habit-forming timelines at anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months of daily practice before a new part of your routine becomes automatic, and that can be tough to achieve.  So how do we build a habit at all, and how do we specifically build a habit of Being There for our team in a way that helps advance our professional goals?

Burnout is one of those feelings that happens to many of us when we’re working at the same job for a long time, or when that job becomes particularly intense or throws our life off balance. When burnout hits, it can be hard to overcome–but it’s possible with the right set of skills, which we’ve talked about before. But for anybody who’s managed to overcome burnout in the past, the more crucial question then becomes, “well, how do I avoid it again in the future?” And that can be just as difficult, if not more so! Avoiding burnout requires thinking proactively and practicing new skills before you ever think you need to do so–and sometimes it can even be hard to quantify, as preventative measures always are. After all, you can’t measure all the bad feelings you don’t have, can you?

Choose Your Attitude is one of the FISH! Philosophy core tenets that people pick up on fairly intuitively, but have a hard time actually putting into practice. Yes, it makes sense on the surface–when you adopt a beneficial or effective attitude in the workplace, it’ll lead to more positive interactions with your team and help you reach your goals. But the truth is, it’s more complicated and more difficult than that. How do you know what attitude to choose? How do you choose your attitude without suppressing or burying your emotions? How do you slow down and make it a conscious choice, rather than simply giving into your emotional urges in any given moment? Choose Your Attitude is a necessary tool to pick up, so here are just a few ways to help you put it into practice: Adopt a “growth” mindset.

Energy is possibly the single most vital resource for the overall health of your organization. It’s not just not feeling tired, but it’s about that positive force that gives us the hard-to-come-by motivation to not just survive work, but thrive in your workplace with passion and drive.  Without energy, the work might get done, but at what cost? Demotivation, burnout, and poor mental health are all individual factors that lead to dysfunction on an organizational level, and we can avoid those by making sure our team is energized and excited to do their very best work, all the time. As individuals, energy is what keeps us going and pushes us to do better and better each time, and as a team, energy is what helps us work together to create positive outcomes and keep the organization moving forward to greater successes. So how can your organization keep your team energized and working together happily and passionately? 

Difficult conversations are part and parcel of any professional job, much as we may not want to admit it. It’s comforting to think that if we put our heads down and focus on our own job, we can do great work without dealing with confrontation, but this is rarely the case. From managers needing to deal with performance issues, to team members collaborating to find solutions to tough problems, to officemates navigating interpersonal conflicts, we all find ourselves having difficult conversations in the workplace at some point or another. It’s also easy to feel like the best way to get through them is to shut down, not talk, or simply avoid them–but this is far from true. When we clam up, issues don’t get resolved, and can often get worse as individuals fill any knowledge gaps with assumptions rather than hearing the facts straight from the other person.

We all know what it’s like to go around the Thanksgiving table and share what we’re thankful for, but that shouldn’t only happen one day a year–the most effective people who are the most in-tune with the emotions and needs of themselves and others are often those who express gratitude as a daily practice within their lives. This may sound a little “woo”-ey, but there’s real science to it: Even the Mayo Clinic acknowledges the link between regularly expressing gratitude and improved moods, lessened mental health symptoms, better sleep, and more. But practicing gratitude isn’t always easy. It requires awareness of your surroundings, both your physical and social external surroundings but also your internal emotional surroundings. Practicing awareness and gratitude are often intertwined, and the better you are at one, the better you can be at the other. But how can we use the FISH! Philosophy to practice both these skills and improve our lives at work and at home?

With the world more interconnected than ever before and businesses more global than ever before, it’s no surprise that the amount of workplace collaboration we take on has grown significantly over the past several decades. And with this increase in collaboration and teamwork comes a refocus on organizational efficiency. In the past, organizations would look towards empowering the individual and determining what made each individual succeed or fail in their positions. But now, more and more workplaces are starting to get deeply analytical about how smaller teams function within an organization–after all, if these workers are all collaborating on a daily basis, then focusing on the team as a unit is surely the most effective place to start increasing operational efficiencies.

Have you ever heard of a man named Vic Cianca? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry: he’s one of the many unsung heroes of the world who make their communities just a little bit better by virtue of being themselves. Vic Cianca was a traffic cop in Pittsburgh who was beloved for his, shall we say, unique ways of directing traffic every day on the job. Rather than just standing there, pointing the way with his arms, he truly made the job his own–from pretending to fall asleep when distracted drivers failed to move, to pleading with traffic to keep going, to even using legs and other limbs to direct cars, Cianca turned this one intersection into his own Jester’s Court every day he worked. He even gained some notoriety for his antics: not only did everyone in the city love him, but his passion and humor even made it into the hit 1980’s movie Flashdance, where he served as inspiration for Jennifer Beals’ would-be dancer. Sadly, Vic Cianca passed away in 2010 at the age of 92, but the way he approached his job can still inspire how we approach our own, every day of the week.

Learning to give and receive criticism professionally and effectively is hands-down one of the most important professional skills anybody can learn, but also hands-down one of the hardest. Hearing we’ve done something wrong is a huge emotional trigger for most people, and conversely, most of us who pride ourselves on being generally nice and respectful people get huge anxiety at the thought of providing critical feedback to someone else. Criticism is an unavoidable part of life, whether in work, relationships, friendships, and family dynamics, and for good reason: constructive feedback is how we learn and improve ourselves and can lead to personal growth rather than emotional or professional stagnation.

If it’s been a while since you checked your generational calendar, take a peek: The oldest Millennials are now in their forties, and even the youngest are generally past traditional college age. That means that if you haven’t noticed already, Millennials are likely a huge part of your organization’s workforce. Plenty of ink has been spilled about working with Millennials, but let us spill just a bit more: this generation isn’t made up of children, but rather regular human beings with the same feelings as the rest of us. But it is true that as they’ve aged into the workforce, they’ve also brought about a change in culture and a change in professional norms. So here’s some tips for how you can use the FISH! Philosophy to help you navigate the changing workplace with your new, younger teammates.

It seems hard to go through the world nowadays without hearing about the concept of mindfulness, but if this is your first time, let us be your introduction. Mindfulness is essentially just the idea of attuning yourself to the present moment and paying deep, close attention to your surroundings and tasks at hand, without letting your mind wander or letting intrusive thoughts serve as a distraction. Mindfulness is hugely popular in the world of wellness, therapeutic practice, and self-help, and it’s easy to see why. When we practice mindfulness, we align our minds and our bodies rather than letting them drift apart or allowing our minds to do what they do best: ruminating and anticipating that which might hurt us.

If you regularly read this blog, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the 4 core practices of the Fish! Philosophy: Be There, Play, Make Their Day, and Choose Your Attitude. These principles are at the center of everything we do, and they’re the foundations that make Fish! so effective in the school or workplace. However, just like any skill or piece of knowledge, it helps to revisit something you know intimately in order to re-establish the benefits and reinforce the importance of that skill. By spending a bit of time to refamiliarize yourself with something you’ve spent so much time practicing, it makes it salient again, allowing you to put front and center in your mind something that may otherwise have taken a back seat due to familiarity or confidence. So today, let’s take another look at the first of these core skills: Be There. We’ll discuss what it is, why it’s important, and how it can take your organizational effectiveness and personal happiness to the next level.