The FISH! Philosophy is a leadership and team-building work style that I’d like to incorporate into any business or endeavor I lead in the future. Its premises –– founded at the Pike Place Fish Company in Seattle, Washington –– fit definitions of effective leadership and are a good example of success by way of emotional and social intelligence. Maybe it’s the wave of the future.
“A leader’s greatest asset is not power or charisma; it’s relationships” (FISH! Leadership, 2016). The foundation of FISH! Philosophy leadership involves trust, awareness, attitude and recognition. If your followers trust you as a leader, it’s because they have learned you have integrity. Integrity is simply honesty and trustworthiness (Northouse, 2015, p. 25). Leaders with integrity have high principles, and they take responsibility for their actions, according to the early work of Stogdill (Northhouse, p. 20), and that includes being predictable, reliable and consistent. In Stogdill’s later work, he explained that influencing other people’s behavior was among the traits associated with positive leadership (Northouse, p. 21). All of this is part of the FISH! Philosophy of trust, which helps a leader “be fully present when they need you the most” (FISH! Leadership).
Followers will generally take note of leaders who are aware of what is going on around them, the nuances, what is motivating followers (and what is discouraging followers). Followers more readily respect and leader and commit to them and the goals of the work when leaders are fully aware. Awareness today has a lot to do with social intelligence, being able to understand your own feelings, how you act and how you think, as well as the feelings, actions and thoughts of your followers. It helps a leader act appropriately (Northouse, p. 23). How many of us have worked in situations in which the only awareness a leader or manager had was of his own ambition or the company’s bottom line, a manager who not only wasn’t aware of the people around him helping him achieve that bottom line, but simply didn’t care? It can be demoralizing.
Attitude “is your choice,” according to the FISH! Leadership philosophy. “When you accept that responsibility, you become a powerful example of integrity and accountability.” Researchers agree. Integrity is listed in almost every theory of leadership. Accountability is part of acting responsibly and accepting consequences in Stogdill’s assessment of leadership; adjustment in Mann’s philosophy; and conscientiousness in Godlberg’s list of leadership traits (Northouse, p. 22). In any work environment, it is impossible for subordinates to have a good attitude when the organization’s leaders have a poor attitude.
Where the FISH! Leadership theories and our lessons in leadership differ is in recognition. FISH! Encourages leaders to “celebrate and encourage.” I believe recognition is highly subjective. It depends very much on the follower. Some workers like to be the center of attention and be publicly recognized, maybe get a promotion or title. Some like private pats on the back. I doubt, though, that there is anyone who would object to remuneration in the form of a pay raise. Our textbook hasn’t addressed recognition at length, but I believe good leaders need to know if, when and how to recognize their followers. Let’s hope part of the celebrating and encouraging includes raises for those who show excellent salesmanship on the fish market floor.
I can only assume self-confidence and sociability have been handed down from the leaders to their subordinates at the Pike Place Market. The leadership trait of self-confidence, “the ability to be certain about one’s competencies and skills” (Northouse, p. 24), is apparent throughout the fish market, most notably as employees “fly” fish through the air and catch them easily 20 feet away. Seeking pleasant informal social relationship, or sociability, also is apparent as the followers at the fish market smile, laugh, sing, joke and make customers laugh.
Pragmatically, the market “is an important business and economic contributor in the region … a significant contributor to business growth and economic activity (Berk, 2004). After the FISH! Philosophy was highly publicized by John Christensen of ChartHouse learning in 1998, gross revenues of all properties in Seattle’s Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) went up 6.1 percent, generating approximately $3.9 million in tax revenues, including $3.3 million in sales taxes (Berk). Pike Place also is a major employment center, with 1,500 employees in the winter and 2,400 employees in the summer. “ Indirect and induced employment adds another 3,600 jobs associated with related business transactions, and much of the economic benefit associated with these jobs remains in the local economy” (Berk, 2004).
I believe that goals are achieved through effective leadership: influencing a group of employees to achieve a common goal (Northouse, p. 6), and the FISH! Philosophy is a good example. It’s just good business, when that common goal –– making money and having fun while doing it –– is realized. That makes everyone smile.
References:
Berk (2004). Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority A Business, Economic and Public Policy Assessment of the PDA’s Properties. Retrieved from: http://www.pps.org/pdf/pike_place_economic_impact_study.pdf
FISH! Leadership, 2016. OrangeBall Creative Retrieved from: http://www.fishphilosophy.com/impact-of-the-fish-philosophy
Northouse, Peter G. (2016). Leadership Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA., SAGE Publications, Inc.
I do enjoy the FISH! Leadership philosophy, I didn’t really know it before I started reading these blog posts. I think a lot of the FISH! philosophy can be traced to the Armed Forces. I do agree with the rewarding of people for positive performance, however that depends on what type of reward people want. Some people are good with just getting money, some people want plaques and personal recognition, some people just like getting time off.
Attitude is a big thing with leadership as well. If a leader has a positive attitude, subordinates will follow. If there’s a negative attitude displayed by the leader, that will trickle down and the subordinates will start to display the same negative attitude. By doing that in a negative light, work production, morale, and other performance driven statistics will be driven down.
I find your post highly intriguing. This is in part due to the fact that several years ago, before I returned to school, I went through a management training program when I was promoted while working for a national retailer. On the very first day of training at the headquarters we were taught about the FISH! Philosophy and the entire week’s worth of training incorporated it in some way or another. One of the biggest aspects of the philosophy that was promoted through the training sessions was that of teamwork, and that to be an effective leader, a person has to understand that they are dependent upon their followers and without them they cannot be effective. In order for it to be possible for a leader to be effective at leading and guiding a team, they should possess a modicum of emotional intelligence. Goleman (1995, 1998 as cited in Northouse, 2016) describes emotional intelligence as a set of personal and social competencies. In many aspects, the FISH! Philosophy is based upon social competencies as Goleman sees them, which consist of both of empathy and the ability to communicate and manage conflict. A team cannot successfully achieve its goals if it is unable to communicate or manage conflict effectively. A leader must be able to recognize this and have empathy for his or her followers and their struggles within a group. He or she must also be able to facilitate communication and help solve problems, in part by coming up with effective solutions.
Also, in conjunction with your statements about sociability and how they come into play using the FISH! Philosophy at the Pike Place Fish Market, the employees there not only entertain the customers and passerby, but also draw them into their team efforts by encouraging them to attempt to catch fish and cheering them on when they do, which goes along with your statements about celebrating and encouraging employees, but also plays into both the agreeableness and extraversion factors of the Five Factor Model of Personality (PSU WC, 2016, l.2 p.4). A leader who is friendly and promotes teamwork and cooperation while acting encouragingly and in a self-confident and outgoing manner and also instills these same qualities in others helps to promote an attitude that is conducive to productive teamwork, which is part of the core essence of the FISH! Philosophy.
References
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2016). Lesson 2: Trait approach. PSYCH485: Leadership in work settings. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych485/001/content/02_lesson/04_page.html.