Tim Sanders talks about leadership, in an extremely straightforward way. He talks about how organizations stink from the head. 1 minute, 10 seconds to learn a powerful lesson. Watch the video.
It’s a simple thing to understand: If the leader is poison, then the organization will soon follow.
If you’re wondering why folks aren’t following you, or wondering why the folks that report to you aren’t performing at the level you expect them to, look to yourself first, then look to them.
That Fish Stinks From the Head.
For more from Tim Sanders, check out Sanders Says, or read his book Love is the …read more

One of the best ways you can practice living the FISH Philosophy is to be there for your team.
5 Ways to Be There For Your Team
1) Single task your direct reports
2) Manage by walking around
3) Open your door to your team
4) Open your heart to your team
5) Listen, I mean really LISTEN, to what your direct reports are saying
What can you do to BE THERE for your team?
Listen to the music photo credit to vagawi

 
One of my favorite parts of the FISH Philosophy is Choose Your Attitude. It’s the most powerful, and the one I can share with everyone I come in contact with.
I have control. I can choose my attitude.
And so can you!
Today, I’m sharing five interesting Choose Your Attitude quotes with you.
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” – Herm Albright
“If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want.” – Oscar Wilde
“The sun shines and warms and …read more

 
I found a fun video about the Fish Philosophy to share with you this week. It’s about 8 minutes
I also found a free online community that you can join to learn more about how to integrate FISH! into your company or organization.
One of the most fun articles was about choosing your attitude…and your attire.

One of our team leads has his own personal “Festive Shirt Friday” where he wears a fun shirt most Fridays. We also have “jean days” where folks can wear jeans if they give a $5 or more donation to a specified charity.
Choose Your Attitude questions for you:
Can …read more

One of the things everyone loves is FOOD!
With our FISH Philosophy, we enjoy a LOT of food in a lot of different ways. The picture above is from a recent FISH! pie eating contest we had for a hugely FISH! Festival.
How much do we love food? Let me count the ways!
1) Pie Eating Contests – this was the first time we tried this, and we had 7 teams compete to win. The guy with his arms spread is one of my fellow managers, and yes, that’s me with my hands on my knees on your left. To have 7 folks …read more

One of the four components of the FISH Philosophy is Make Their Day. While it would be easy for my team to say “Yeah, we do that every day” and not focus on this very much, we like to take it to a new level and make some days extra special.
This past Christmas one of our teammates was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is 28 years old and has 2 small children and while she wasn’t always a big fan of the FISH Philosophy, we knew that doing something nice for her would make her day.
What did we do?
First, we …read more

Every year on January 15th, my firm celebrates our past year’s successes and struggles with an Associate Appreciation Day. We serve breakfast for all the associates, and all managers are invited to shake hands and share a cup of coffee with associates from around the firm. It’s one of my favorite days of the year at our firm, because I get the opportunity to thank, in person, all those who help my team throughout the year.
Our IT FISH! Committee takes this one step further for all the IT associates; we hand-write thank you notes to each and every associate. Even …read more

One of the most important parts of the FISH! Philosophy is play. There are lots of ways you can PLAY at work without spending much money, and without hurting anything at your job (or anyone’s feelings).
At my company, we PLAY once a month, often on a Friday afternoon, sometimes on a random weekday morning, for about 20 minutes. Winners can win anything from an afternoon off work (with manager approval of course) to nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done.
Some folks think IT folks are boring and stuffy; nothing could be further from the truth for the geeks …read more

FISH! photo courtesy of Amazon.com
 
Has anyone ever told you about the wonderful little book called “FISH!” the book? Sure, you’re probably a little skeptical about anything that sounds this silly. Or you’re skeptical because the book is based on a group of guys who work at the Pikes Place Fish Market in Seattle, and your team doesn’t sling fish for a living, so you can’t possibly put anything in this book into action.
I was skeptical at first too, and then my team decided we’d “go FISH!ing” and put the philosophy into action in our IT department. And it changed a lot …read more