The post Our Top 5 Tips to Improve Your Attitude Every Day appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

Turn those what-ifs into reality and add some thought-provoking flair to your email signature!

Here are five of our favorite day-making FISH! Philosophy themed quotes:

“Nobody can put you in a bad mood without your permission.”

– Pete Cicero, Fiskars

“Being there means no one ever has to be alone.”

– First Grader, Gage Elementary School

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist

“Why can’t work be fun?”

– Mark Lenz, Tennessee College of Applied Technology

“The easiest way to kill culture is to mandate it.”

– David St. Germain, Chaska High School

“We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

– George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

– William James, American philosopher and psychologist

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post 7 Awesome Quotes for Your Email Signature appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

The best part is that these lessons are universally applicable – you don’t need to be an educator or even work with children to apply them every day and make your workplace a more functional, more pleasant place to spend such a significant portion of your life.

So just what can teachers teach us about the FISH! Philosophy?

Stay patient to build stronger relationships

The first lesson every teacher learns – usually the hard way – is that every student is different, and no two student-teacher relationships are the same. While some kids come in well-socialized and open to learning, others are tougher nuts to crack. They may have difficult home lives, a lack of positive role models, or past traumas that result in them being closed-off, difficult to manage, or slow to trust.

But the best teachers know that they need to Be There for every student. By showing up emotionally, being that first person to reach out, and sticking around even during the difficult moments, students will eventually find comfort and joy in learning – and the same is true of the people you work with.

We all have our coworkers that make our lives just a bit less easy. Maybe they’re ineffective, or emotionally volatile, or unwilling to accept feedback and support. The truth is, very few people are “lost causes,” and just about every relationship can blossom and open up when approached with care and kindness – it just often requires us to take that first step.

Believe in everyone’s potential – and show them your support 

Every educator can agree that encouragement and positive reinforcement is crucial for teaching those trickiest lessons. Not every child “gets” everything on the first try, but when we treat every child as a student capable of “getting it” and vocalize our support and encouragement, they’re far more likely to try again and again until they grasp a new concept or skill.

And guess what? That doesn’t go away just because we grow up. Nobody is perfect and we’re all constantly learning, and that means we all need that support. The more you can find small ways to Make Their Day with words of encouragement, random acts of kindness, and other signs of support, trust, and cheerleading, the those around us will find the confidence to continue on their own path of learning and growing.

Act with intentionality and build a sense of purpose

When we think back to our favorite teachers, often they’re the ones who didn’t just spout facts at us or rule over the room with an iron fist, but encouraged us to take ownership of the classroom and foster our own sense of community. When students feel a responsibility towards their own education, they feel that sense of purpose that keeps them pointed in the right direction.

Of course, the same is true with employees as well. The more we can engage employees with organizational values, the more they’ll put in the effort to live up to their fullest potential. But that requires more than just painting your mission statement on the break room wall – the organization needs to act with intentionality in order to live up to those values.

This means practicing Choose Your Attitude every day, both as individuals and as an organization. It means greeting constructive criticism with gratitude and openness, not punishing people for sharing their feelings. It means pushing everyone to live up to the organization’s values, and not making exceptions for bosses or star employees. It means choosing to embrace challenges head-on, rather than shying away. When an organization’s management models its values openly, individual employees are more likely to follow their leadership.

Use Play to foster engagement and enthusiasm

Learning can – and should – be fun. This doesn’t sound like a controversial statement, but it really can be the difference between a teacher who just teaches to the test compared to one that produces enthusiastic life-long learners. Memorizing facts may be a necessity sometimes, but every classroom should have room for Play, where students are encouraged to explore new ideas, experiment, and learn from both their successes and failures.

As an organization, you should be striving to make room for this same sense of Play. When employees have new ideas – even (or especially) if they’re a little “out there” – then there should be space to explore without fear of judgment. Not every idea needs to be fleshed out to fruition, but making space for brainstorming, ideation, and team-oriented free-thinking will increase the likelihood of hitting on that brilliant new path forward that separates you from all your competitors and leaves your team feeling proud and empowered.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• Who was your favorite teacher in school? What’s one thing they did that could help make your office a better place to work?
• Do you treat others in your workplace with respect and emotional openness, even if they don’t always return the favor? What could you do to foster more open relationships?
• What are your organization’s values? Do you feel the organization practices those values every day? If not, what more could be done to bring those values into the workplace?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post What Teachers Can Teach Us About the FISH! Philosophy appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

So how can the FISH! Philosophy help us build and maintain focus in the workplace? It may not seem like the 4 Pillars of FISH! directly relate to this very internal skill, but the truth is each and every one has a place in helping us focus at work.

Be There: Give each task the attention it deserves

When we talk about Be There as a pillar of the FISH! Philosophy, it’s often couched in language about emotional availability and supporting those around us. While all of that is true and important, the core of Be There has nothing to do with those around us, and everything to do with approaching any situation with focus, attention, and mindfulness.

Despite all our beliefs to the contrary, multitasking is largely considered a myth by those who study the human brain. We simply aren’t wired to perform multiple tasks at once at maximum efficiency, and when we try, we end up performing every task with only partial attention and skill. When we make the decision to Be There, we’re making the decision to focus single-mindedly on the task at-hand, working at it until it’s complete rather than letting our attention pull in several different directions. Pick one thing to do and you’ll do it well – that’s how Being There helps us build and maintain focus.

Play: Take a brain break and come back energized 

Normally when it comes to FISH! we talk at-length about how “Play” is about flexing your mind and imagination without fear of judgment or repercussions – but not today. Today, we’re going to talk about Play as, well… play!

We can’t maintain focus forever. No matter how much we believe otherwise, we simply can’t stare at our work for hours on end and hope to stay productive. Medical guidance recommends taking 5-minutes every hour to rest your eyes from the screen, stretch your body, and give your brain a break it deserves – and we believe the same. Take a quick walk, share a joke with a coworker, play a small game, or just do anything that isn’t the task you need to get done. That way, when your break is over, you can come back and tackle that task with complete focus and attention.

Make Their Day: A strong team helps everyone stay focused

This should go without saying, but your working environment is one of the biggest factors in how productive and focused you can be while working – and that includes not just the built space you’re in, but the people you’re around as well. We’ve all felt the difference in how effective we are when the whole office is in good spirits, focused on their work, and humming away tackling project after project.

While we can’t control how everyone around us behaves, we can influence the vibes of the office by how we act. This isn’t just about buckling down and working hard and hoping others notice; it’s about actively supporting others – Making Their Day with words of affirmation and encouragement, small moments of socialization, surprise treats or activities, and more will help others do their best work, which will help you do yours in return.

Choose Your Attitude: A good mood will bring good results

Maintaining focus is (understandably) hardest when we’re anxious, preoccupied, upset, or agitated. While all these emotions serve a purpose and we don’t want to pass judgment by labeling any particular emotion “negative,” it’s easy to see why these particular feelings can keep us from tending to tasks at-hand.

Fortunately, by practicing Choose Your Attitude, we can recognize when we’re in these heightened emotional states and make a conscious choice about how we act in response – whether that’s to take action to correct whatever is upsetting us, or to let it go (or set it aside for later) so we can better-focus on more pressing tasks. Choose Your Attitude isn’t about suppressing or hiding emotions; it’s all about putting you in control of how you respond to them!

Ideas to Reflect On:

• How often do you take a breather at work? If it isn’t often enough, how can you schedule small brain breaks throughout the day?
• When something upsets you at work, does it derail your day? How could Choosing Your Attitude help you avoid breaking focus?
• Do you find yourself having to multi-task often? How can you structure your work day so you’re only focusing on one task at once?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post Improve Your Focus with the FISH! Philosophy appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

However, building a positive and productive organizational culture doesn’t start with existing employees; it starts from the moment someone applies to be a part of your organization. Many places place an emphasis on “culture fit” when hiring, but that can be more regressive than intended – all too often, hiring for “culture fit” results in organizations that are cliquish or reinforce existing internal inequities.

That’s where we come back around to FISH!. The FISH! Philosophy isn’t just for your team that’s already in place; it can be integrated into your hiring process to help share the values your organization promotes while giving applicants a sense of what it would be like to work with you. Here are ways you can bring the core pillars of FISH! into your hiring process:

Be There: Be flexible and compassionate with your hiring process

Be There is fundamentally about treating your employees and coworkers like real people with real emotions and supporting them through both good times and bad. Whether that’s sharing in their successes or offering an empathetic ear when they’re struggling, it’s key to bringing humanity back into the workplace.

In your hiring process, it means understanding that searching for a job is a hugely stressful process with extreme power imbalances – one that expects applicants to be at their very best and dings them for any perceived fault. While it’s obviously important to hold applicants to high standards, we also want to practice extending empathy as well.

If someone needs to reschedule an interview, or stumbles over a tough question, or shows up 5 minutes late, we can note that,  but don’t miss the forest for the trees – these are real people, and focusing too much on minor perceived failings or faults can mean overlooking major strengths a candidate brings to the table.

Play: Give candidates opportunities to share unique ideas and experiences 

Especially as organizations grow larger and applicant pools follow suit, it’s easy for our application and interview process to calcify, offering the same series of closed-ended questions with strict rubrics for assessment.

While we want to set up systems to treat all candidates equally, and using data-driving hiring is vital in large organizations, we also want our hiring systems to account for the traits that make individual hires uniquely qualified for our positions. One way to do this is to build into your applications and interviews open-ended questions that allow for creative responses and outside-the-box thinking – and encourage applicants to give honest answers. Bringing room for Play into the interview process will help ensure that you’re getting a real sense of each candidates’ personality and ways of thinking, rather than favoring those who simply “know all the right answers.”

Make Their Day: Respond to all applicants with kindness and respect

As mentioned before, it’s important to empathize with those who are going through the stress and chaos of job hunting. One of the most common ways hiring organizations fail their candidates is by ghosting them – giving them zero response to their applications or interviews and leaving them to wonder if they’re still in the running.

A rejection email or (if a candidate has gotten to the interview stage) phone call can seem daunting. After all, there are often hundreds of applicants and the thought of being the bearer of bad news doesn’t make anyone happy. But proper communication – even for candidates and applicants who weren’t chosen – is a sign of respect for the time and energy they took to submit themselves to your organization. When a candidate has gotten radio silence from 10 different organizations and yours actually offers a kind and compassionate rejection, you better believe that this candidate will leave with greater respect for your organization in return.

Choose Your Attitude: Keep an open mind to find the perfect fit

Of course, the ultimate goal of the hiring process is to, well, hire a new employee. And when you’re sitting in front of a bunch of names and applications deciding who to progress and who to leave behind, you’ll be weighing countless different factors: experience, skills, interview answers, education, budget, personality, etc.

Often, you’ll end up making decisions based on objective measurements: does someone have X years in the industry? Do they have a Master’s degree? Have they worked on projects like yours in the past? Some organizations even use automated filters to filter out applications that are missing certain keywords.

Rather than simply defaulting to who looks best on paper, stay open to unique perspectives and talents. If someone may not have the most obviously fitting resume, see if their cover letter makes a good case for why their experience fits. If someone isn’t a perfect wordsmith during an interview, offer them a technical test to see if they can actually do the work. Different people display their skills, knowledge, and experience in different ways, and the more you choose an attitude of open-mindedness, the more likely you are to find the diamonds in the rough in your hiring process.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• Are there small traits, habits, or behaviors that color your mind against certain candidates? How could you benefit from overlooking these minor flaws?
• Does your organization make it a priority to respond to all candidates and applicants, even those you aren’t moving forward? If not, how can you build that responsibility?
• How does your organization filter out candidates at each round of the hiring process? Is there space for non-traditional candidates to prove themselves?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post How to Integrate the FISH! Philosophy into Your Hiring Process appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

Well, we can start by setting goals. If you think about it, setting goals is really just a long-term way of practicing Choose Your Attitude: you’re making a decision about how you as an organization want to present yourself and what you want to achieve, and working towards that goal even in moments when your emotions may tell you otherwise.

So what sorts of goals can you set for your team to help keep them happy, healthy, and hanging around in 2024?

Show up for your team as the going gets harder

Does it ever just feel like life is getting a bit harder, a bit more chaotic, and a bit more stressful year after year? Even if our personal lives are advancing, the world around us can feel like it’s becoming less stable and less predictable year-in and year-out, and that ambient stress and anxiety can add up so that even a nice job feels overwhelming.

Of course, we all need to keep moving forward and doing our best, even when things are tough – that’s a given. But the more you can recognize the weight on your teams’ shoulders and show up for them when they’re struggling the most, the more they’ll see their career as a stabilizing force in their lives, not a volatile one.

Simply Being There when someone is having a rough day, needs some encouragement, or needs someone to vent to can be a massive benefit. You don’t need to cross professional boundaries, but if your team can see you as an emotional support rather than a brick wall, they’ll return the favor both to you personally and to the organization.

Make your office a place where people want to stay for the long haul

When employees feel valued, they tend to do their best work – and stick around rather than jump ship. A key element of this is treating people like, well… people! Your team aren’t a bunch of robots or AI programs that can do what you ask without support or positive reinforcement; they’re people with feelings, desires, bad days, and more.

Now obviously, the best way to ensure long tenure is by getting the basics right: fulfilling work for competitive pay with decent benefits and opportunity for advancement. But within this, there are plenty of smaller things you can do to Make Their Day and give them those warm and fuzzy feelings that keep us happy where we are.

Whether it’s buying lunch for the office (just because), offering genuine and compassionate feedback both when someone needs improvement and when they knock it out of the park, or even just asking someone’s opinion on a project outside their usual work, there are endless opportunities to spark joy and leave your team smiling as they hit their commute home.

These may not be enough to earn loyalty on their own (as anybody who’s endured the dreary retail “pizza party” can attest), but when combined with a fundamentally solid office culture, small positive moments help build strong connections that can span a full career.

Find a way for everyone to Play

One of the best ways to foster loyalty and encourage good people to stick around is by giving your team ways to feel like they have a say in the business. Fundamentally, this means finding ways to allow your team to express themselves openly and honestly without fear of retribution, negative judgment, or being shut down.

We talk a lot about the idea of Play, where people have unstructured time to ideate, propose or try new things, fail (and learn from their failures), and collaborate. This not only gives people an opportunity to express themselves, but when these ideas are considered without judgment, it makes them feel like a real member of the team, not just a cog in the machine.

The more space you can create for Play, the better your team will coalesce in the coming year – but even in situations where opportunities for free Play aren’t obvious, you can still build this camaraderie by finding other ways for people to share their true feelings: soliciting manager feedback during performance reviews, putting out suggestion boxes, and instituting open-door policies can be a huge boon – so long as you actually listen and take these ideas seriously, of course.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• Do any of your team members ever express frustration or anxiety to you or each other? How can you encourage a workplace that allows for emotional expression without negatively impacting productivity?
• What does your workplace do to build camaraderie and positive feelings that your competitors may not? How can you Make Their Day in a way that others don’t?
• Does your team have space to share new ideas, brainstorm, and take risks without fear of failure? How can you expand these spaces to every level of the organization?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post FISH!-Friendly Goals for Decreasing Turnover in 2024 appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

But does Choosing Your Attitude look different when you’re a 60-year old C-suite exec vs. a fresh-faced college grad? How does Choose Your Attitude work when you’re at different stages of your career and your professional development? While the following is far from comprehensive, here are just a few different things to consider when practicing Choose Your Attitude throughout your career:

Early career: Stay positive and roll with the punches

When you’re just starting out building a professional career, it can often be a shock to the system. Fresh out of college and full of youthful spirit and big ideas, many entry-level employees are confronted with the harsh reality that no matter how you slice it, work is still, well… work.

Entry-level jobs don’t have to be soul-crushing – a great organization will make all employees feel valued and supported by Being There when they need it and encouraging a sense of Play, but your early professional jobs still run the risk of being a bit tedious, with a sense that you’re just putting in the hours and not wielding great influence.

But rather than letting it knock you down, choose an attitude of positivity: treat everything as a learning experience, whether it’s how to sit back and listen to gain insight from your boss, when to speak up if something doesn’t feel right, or even what type of management and organizational structures you want to work within.

It’s easy to feel dismayed by your early jobs, as you often get all the pressure and bureaucracy of office life without any influence or power – but if you treat this stage as the best time to learn what works for you and how to work for others, you’ll be well on your way to really shaping a great career down the road.

Middle career: Stay flexible and work to build compromise

The middle stages of your career can be a real mixed bag – you’ve likely had a few promotions and found yourself with some type of authority over others and influence on the direction of the organization, but your work is still ultimately at the whims of those above you, which can make it hard to feel fully in control. After all, “middle management” is sometimes used as a derogatory term – but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The key to succeeding in this stage of your professional life is by maintaining flexibility – you want to exercise your power and authority to make life better for the people under you (and Make Their Day) while still maintaining focus in order to do your best work for those who oversee you and your team. It’s easy to fall into a habit of rigidity, bristling at feedback from both above and below – but if you can choose an attitude of being the shock absorber and the mediator meeting the needs of both your team and your superiors, you’ll continue to build a reputation as a great boss and an effective asset to the organization.

Later career: be the shining beacon your team needs to succeed

At the later stages of your career, it (hopefully) finally feels like you’ve “made it.” Maybe you’ve earned that director title, that c-suite office, or maybe you’re even the big boss in charge. Or maybe you aren’t a ladder-climber and have just been putting in the hours and building your pension doing a job you like year after year and gotten that seniority. Or maybe you’ve even bounced around, trying out different jobs and different industries and gotten the breadth of experiences many can only dream about.

Regardless of the path your career has charted, the later stages of your career are when you’ll be most looked up to by others, and when you really need to be that active role model for those who are still learning and growing. By actively choosing to model continued leadership, respect for your team, and a continued willingness to learn and adapt, you can avoid becoming the grizzled curmudgeon or that “broken stair” so stuck in your ways that others avoid you, and earn the respect of everyone as you age gracefully towards retirement.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• Early Career: What do you want your career to look like in 5 or 10 years? Even if your current work isn’t particularly stimulating, what can you take from it that will help you work towards those goals?
• Middle Career: What are your biggest frustrations when dealing with different levels of operation and authority? How can the right attitude alleviate some of that stress and help meet the needs of all parties?
• Later Career: How do you present yourself to those below you, or newer than you? Are you “pulling up the ladder” behind you, or are you choosing to offer advice and guidance?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post How to Choose Your Attitude at Every Career Stage appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

And while it isn’t your job as the boss to manage every person’s relationship with the darkest days of Winter, it is in your best interest to make sure you show up and Be There however you can for your team – it’ll help them feel better coming into work, build stronger relationships between you and your employees, and maintain your work output and standards during a time of year that can often cause its fair share of strain and difficulty.

Acknowledge that seasons affect people emotionally

The first step towards Being There for your team during this sometimes-tough season is by simply acknowledging that – yes – it does affect people differently, and to a notable degree!

For some people, the issue may be clinical: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, also colloquially known as Seasonal Depression) is estimated to affect approximately 5% of the population and is likely linked to the decreased sunlight during darker Winter months. Like any type of depression, SAD can impact mood, physical energy, and productivity – the effects of which can cause real issues with work output and motivation.

For others, Winter can bring emotional difficulties: strained family relationships may cause added stress during holiday gatherings; the plethora of holidays in such a short timespan can mess with those who thrive on predictable schedules and workflows; even the cold itself can impact peoples’ ability to get out of the house and stay physically active or do their favorite self-care activities.

Regardless of the cause, simply offering an affirming presence and reminding your team that you’re here to work with them rather than against them can help those affected feel more motivated to keep up with their lives and their work.

Stay as flexible as possible during the Holiday Season

The holiday season can be a stressful time around the office. While having time off is something we often look forward to, the reality surrounding it can be anxiety-provoking: tight deadlines to finish up projects before taking time off, shifting PTO schedules to accommodate coverage needs, and big pushes to meet end-of-year company goals can all add stress and dysfunction to otherwise-smooth office life.

At the end of the day, the work needs to get done – but the more flexibility you can give your team for when and how the work gets done during this busy time, the more likely your team is to stay happy and content and do their best work. This flexibility can take a lot of forms: it could mean pushing back deadlines that aren’t as crucial; it could look like asking for volunteers to cover holidays rather than defaulting to assigning people those work days; it could even mean allowing flexible off-campus work policies to accommodate families who are traveling for the holidays.

It’s your job to determine what flexibility works best for your team and your company’s goals, but the more you’re able to provide, the more harmonious and productive the season will be.

Make dark days a bit brighter

One of the beauties of the FISH! Philosophy is that the core pillars all intertwine together – it’s hard to practice one without practicing another. In this case, Being There is tough to practice without also practicing Make Their Day – these small, unprompted moments meant to spark joy can add up to a sense that you’re really Being There for your team.

In the dead of Winter, Making Their Day can mean fighting the darkness – both figuratively and literally. Splurging on a higher-quality brand of coffee than usual or a SAD lamp for the break room can help make the winter darkness more survivable. And to counter the doldrums and stress, consider surprises like a catered lunch or a visit to the office from Therapy Animals. You don’t need to go all-out or blow your budget, but small gestures can really help bring people through their most stressful times.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• Does winter weather or the holiday season stress you out? Even if the answer is “no,” consider how it may impact others in ways you don’t realize.
• Does your office have policies (PTO-related, coverage-related, project-related) that could cause additional stress during this season? Can you relax some or all of those policies in a way that doesn’t impact output?
• What’s one thing you can do this week to surprise and delight your team and Make Their Day?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post How to Be There for Your Team During the Darkest Time of Year appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

Fun isn’t a dirty word – it’s a natural human need that’s as important as feeling loved, according to some psychologists. So why is it such a pain to try to inject into a corporate workplace? It seems like office management never loves having to create “fun” activities, and nobody working gets all that excited at the idea of another office birthday sheet cake.

Fortunately, the FISH! Philosophy values fun greatly, and can help us bring a real, genuine sense of fun and a playful spirit into even the most mundane office. Here’s just a few tips on bringing fun into your corporate workplace:

Be There: Build trust and positive relationships with your coworkers

The foundation of fun is in the positive relationships we have with others. After all, we never had quite as much fun as kids when we were playing with someone our parents forced us to hang out with, right?

When it comes to the corporate world, we don’t need to be buddy-buddy with every single person. But the more we can build real relationships with our team, the more we can trust them and earn their trust, the more we’ll all be able to let our guards down, show our true personalities, and really start to have real fun.

And building these relationships means we need to Be There for each other – being there means being present with the person in front of you, listening actively to their words, cheering on their successes, and commiserating when things don’t go their way. The more we can do this, the more that we feel comfortable having fun with each other.

Play: Create space for novelty and freedom to think outside the box

You’d think that this is when we’d finally talk about play like we do in school – tossing the ball around, playing games, and goofing around. And to an extent, you’re right – these can be great activities to help inject some levity into your staid office workplace. A break for an office field day, a nostalgia trip to an old-school arcade, or even just a classic “guess how many Skittles are in this jar” game at the front desk can all bring a sense of traditional play into the workplace.

But this is the FISH! Philosophy, which means we need to stress the importance of Play as we define it – the freedom to engage with new ideas, new activities, and conversations that push the boundaries of our preconceptions. Studies show that as you get higher up the corporate ladder, more and more workers define “fun” as having work duties that engage and challenge them. So rather than assuming that all workers need a break from their duties to have fun, we should work to make sure that everyone has that freedom to think laterally and get their brains working without fear of failure or punishment.

Make Their Day: Surprises still matter – as long as they’re genuine

Sure, we live in a world that is starting to realize that a pizza party doesn’t make up for lousy benefits, or that a goofy poster on the wall won’t stop a crummy manager’s tirades. But there’s still room in the corporate world for small surprises intended to elicit a smile and Make Their Day.

Whether it’s a bowl of candy at the front desk, a special outing for the holiday party, or bagels to kickstart a sleepy Monday, these little gestures still have the capacity to surprise and delight your corporate office, so long as they’re done genuinely and not as a Band-Aid in place of making real changes.

No worker hates the pizza party when they feel listened to, supported, and properly engaged in their job – so as long as your workplace is dedicated to getting the fundamentals right, these surprises can do their real job of putting a bit of fun back into the workplace.

Choose Your Attitude: Enjoy yourself and others will follow 

“Fun” corporate activities have gotten a bad rap for ages now, and honestly? It’s led to plenty of cynicism amongst not only management but regular workers as well. We often approach everything from office picnics to motivational speeches with the mindset that it’s performative, cheesy, or pointless – but what would happen if we let go of those preconceived notions and just let ourselves, you know… have fun?

This is easier said than done, of course. Acting aloof or above-it-all has become so rote for so many of us, but if we practice Choose Your Attitude we can start to find the fun in our workplaces. Whether that means practicing gratitude for the change of pace (even if it’s not our jam), acknowledging the positive intentions of your workplace, or even just putting on a smile and losing yourself to the moment – a change in attitude can let us feel true enjoyment rather than keeping any attempt at corporate “fun” at arm’s length.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• What’s the most fun you’ve ever had at work? Was it a work task, or an activity that was a break from your normal duties?
• Have you ever felt yourself not having fun at a work activity when you felt you should? What could’ve been done to further engage you?
• Do you have relationships with your team? Do you think you could have fun with them outside of a corporate setting? If so, how can you bring that feeling into the office as well?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post How to Bring More Fun into Your Corporate Office appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.

If you’re going to celebrate the holidays in the office, however, put in a little time and effort to get it right. So here are a few suggestions for office holiday gift and celebration ideas that’ll really help Make Their Day, rather than spending your budget just to hand out a perfunctory gift that’ll end up in the trash heap:

Make it personal

Gone are the days when a new company mug or a paperweight that says “thank you” would be considered a genuinely meaningful holiday gift for your employees. Something mass-produced and distributed to every employee – even if “nice” or expensive – often looks phoned-in, and younger generations especially will simply ask themselves why that money couldn’t have gone into their paychecks instead.

If you do decide you want to give your team something physical (and we totally get it – who doesn’t love unwrapping a gift?!), don’t just default to a useless or generic trinket – make it more personal! Set a budget and apply it equally (it doesn’t need to be extravagant; $20-30/person can be just fine), and use that budget to get each person something they’ll really appreciate.

Is Sherry from Accounting on Zoom calls all day? A ring light can literally brighten their presence. Bob in marketing is going through 4 cups of coffee a day? A bag of beans from a respected local roaster could be a treat that goes a long way. Is Elliott the programmer always under headphones while coding? An audiobook subscription service could make their workday fly by. It takes some time to get right, but the right gift can help show staff you care.

Make it professional

Of course, even the most thoughtful physical gift doesn’t negate the fact that some employees simply don’t want stuff. Especially in a professional setting, many workers don’t expect you to read their list to Santa – they just want you to provide acknowledgement and support to them in the workplace.

While great organizations provide professional development as a default, the holidays can be a fantastic time to go the extra mile and help show your employees that you really care about where they’re headed.

This could mean offering to pay for a certification class that previously wasn’t in the budget. It could mean setting up a 1-on-1 for your employee with an executive in their field that rarely has time to spare. It could even just be a heartfelt letter detailing why you respect them and their work – with permission to share it as part of a recommendation next time they go for a promotion. Going the extra mile to show your team that you have their backs throughout their careers can be a longer-lasting and more impactful gift than anything physical ever could.

Make it for everybody

Maybe you’ve noticed, but we haven’t yet touched on one of the most common workplace holiday gifts of all: the office holiday party. The holiday party is an interesting beast – it can be subdued or lavish, behavior can be brutally uptight or distressingly chaotic, and it can feel like a celebration of our team and each other or feel like your worst day at the office (but dressed in an ugly sweater).

The best way you can make an office holiday party feel like a true gift and not just an obligation to attend is by making it as open and welcoming as possible. An off-site location can break people out of that “I’m at the office” mindset and have a bit more fun. Drink tickets can let people unwind without the excess that comes from an open bar. And maybe most importantly, open it up to family and +1’s – and make them feel truly invited with fun activities for kids, ice breakers so that spouses don’t feel relegated to the corner, and enough food for everyone. Trust us – your team will notice the gesture, and a genuinely fun night out at no cost to them can be a great gift for families of all sizes.

Ideas to Reflect On:

• What’s the best office holiday gift you’ve ever received? Which ones could you have done without? What made the former different?
• When planning office holiday gift giving, do you account for each person individually, or do you order the same gift for everyone? If you were in their shoes, which would you prefer?
• If you’re planning an office party, think about your budget: what’s one area where you could cut back, and what’s one area you could invest that saved budget into something really memorable or appreciated?

Want to Implement FISH! in your organization?

Are you a leader?  Do you train others?  Do you want others to be leaders?

Charthouse Learning, the creator of the world-famous, award-winning, FISH! film is offering an in-person, 2-day workshop, interactive Train-the-Trainer lead by our Senior Trainer.

During our time together you’ll learn how to:

• Share the motivation and foundation of FISH!
• Introduce the FISH! film with the four practices.
• Present the invitation to apply the practices in everyday interaction with others.
• Build a sustainability and reinforcement program to transform the culture.
• Pick up tips from other FISH! Philosophers and develop a strategy to embed the practices into the DNA of your culture.
• Create an energized organization that is the “first choice” for employees, faculty, staff, leaders, and customers.

Plus, you will learn how to create a workplace where people choose to “be and bring” their best self everywhere, every day.

At the FISH! Train the Trainer you will:

• Dive Deep: Discover The FISH! Philosophy – full of “A-ha!” takeaways and perspective-shifting realizations.
• Transform: Make the four FISH! practices – Play, Be There, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude – an essential part of your professional and personal skill set.
• Discover: Learn practical ways to apply the FISH! practices to improve teamwork, service, leadership, retention and performance.
• Develop: Brainstorm strategies to embed The FISH! Philosophy into the DNA of your culture, strengthening your mission, vision and values.
• Collaborate: Learn and laugh with like-minded folks from across the globe.

Click Here for More FISH! Train the Trainer Information

Click Here for More FISH! Starter Kit Information

Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and introduce Play into your organization. We invite you to contact us today at 800.695.4534 or info@charthouse.com to speak with our cultural specialists, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!

 Join Us on Social Media:

The post Office Holiday Celebration Ideas that Make Their Day appeared first on FISH! Philosophy Training.