This is a little business parable book. (I have read several books from this genre recently and been pleasantly surprised with them after I get over the silliness or contrived nature of the story. Another one is Who Moved My Cheese? which I wrote about recently.)
I found FISH! contained useful, applicable points for leading my team. The four practices advocated in the book are: choose your attitude at work, incorporate play, make other people’s days, and be there (fully present) at work.
Thinking as a coach, the book gave me inspiration to write a list of coaching questions. (Questions marked with a *star are taken directly from the book, not written by me.)
What would you like the energy of your team to be? When you visualise this, what do you see, feel, hear, and experience?
If you were working at your best, how would your colleagues/boss know? What would they see, feel, hear, and experience? What would you like them to see, feel, hear, and experience?
What choices do you have regarding your energy/mood/attitude at work? What attitude would you like to bring to your work?
What assumptions are you making about your energy/mood/attitude at work? If you knew you could choose your own energy/mood/attitude at work, what would you choose?
*When you are doing what you are doing at work, who are you being? Are you being impatient and bored, or are you being world famous? Who do you/we want to be while you/we do our work?
How playful are you at work? How playful would you like to feel? What would be the impact of being playful at work? What opportunities are there to be playful at work?
*How could you/we have more fun and create more energy?
*How could you/we engage [our customers] in a way that will make their day? How could we make each other’s days?
How present do you feel during your work? How present would you like to feel? What would be the impact of being present at work? What opportunities are there to be present at work? With which people could you be fully present?
I have phrased these questions for a work context, but they could be used for families and relationships of all types.