Mark Alan Fish

Happy teams are not born.
They are built — on purpose, by design.

Most teams don’t struggle because people are incompetent.

They struggle because culture was left to drift.

Pressure creates compliance.
Design creates ownership.

And ownership is what sustains performance.

I didn’t stumble into a great team. I built one. Not perfectly. Not overnight. But intentionally.

If you don’t design the climate of your team, the climate will design you.

1. Create the Climate

Every team has weather.

Deadlines. Tension. Corporate shifts. Hard personalities.

That’s normal.

Climate? That’s leadership.

If you don’t design the climate of your team, the climate will design you.

Early in my career, I thought positivity was personality-driven. Some teams “had it.” Others didn’t.

I was wrong.

Energy is a choice. Leaders go first.

“Create your own sunshine” isn’t a motivational poster. It’s operational.

We don’t wait for morale to improve.
We don’t blame up, down, or sideways.
We build the culture we want inside the reality we have.

Because culture mirrors the emotional standard the leader tolerates.

Energy compounds — good or bad.

I learned that the hard way, over the years, more than once.

2. Develop People or Expect Drift

You can manage tasks.

Or you can develop people.

One creates compliance.
The other creates commitment.

I’ve seen what happens when leaders focus only on output. Talented people don’t revolt.

They drift.

Growth conversations fade.
Feedback becomes transactional.
Ambition dims.

Drift kills culture faster than conflict ever will.

So I chose something different.

Weekly one-on-ones weren’t optional.
Monthly skip-levels weren’t optional either.
Development wasn’t an afterthought.
Stretch opportunities weren’t reserved for favorites.

When people feel invested in, they invest back.

Not because they have to.

Because they want to.

3. Build Rhythm or Burn Energy

Chaos feels productive.

It’s not.

It’s expensive.

Energy leaks through confusion. Through unclear expectations. Through meetings that should have been updates.

When I introduced simple operating rhythms — weekly written updates, defined expectations, visible accountability — performance didn’t surge overnight.

Anxiety dropped.
Clarity rose.
Meetings shortened.
Ownership increased.

Pressure creates output.
Design creates ownership.

When energy isn’t wasted on guessing, it compounds into performance.

Structure doesn’t suppress creativity.

It channels it.

High-performing teams aren’t loud.

They’re aligned.

4. Demand Presence (Including From Yourself)

You cannot build connections through disengagement.

Presence isn’t about visibility on a screen. It’s about emotional availability.

If I’m distracted, my team feels it.
If I’m guarded, they mirror it.
If I’m present, they lean in.

Psychological safety isn’t declared. It’s demonstrated — repeatedly.

Presence builds trust.
Trust builds candor.
Candor builds performance.

Energy disappears when people feel unseen.

So we chose presence.

Not perfection.

Presence.

5. Let It Be Fun

Here’s something I believe fully:

If your team never laughs, something’s broken.

Fun is not the opposite of performance.

Fun isn’t a distraction from performance.
It’s evidence of alignment.

Motivational Mondays.
Shared wins.
Friendly competition.
Inside jokes.
Team chats.
Personal milestones.
Team holidays.
Seasonal activities.

Those weren’t distractions. They were signals.

Signals that trust existed.
Signals that tension wasn’t dominating the room.
Signals that people enjoyed who they were building with.

People don’t give their best energy to environments that feel heavy all the time.

They give it where they feel connected.

6. Never Let It Coast

Culture doesn’t maintain itself.

It drifts.

You either design it, or it designs you.

What worked one year needed adjusting the next. We experimented. Some ideas failed. We recalibrated.

That wasn’t instability.

That was leadership.

Creating your own sunshine requires maintenance.

The Line in the Sand

This is what worked for me.

Not because it was trendy.
Not because it was mandated.
Because I believed that energy drives results.

And I refused to let talent go to waste in a poorly designed culture.

If you want a great team — and a happy one — stop hoping.

Design the climate.
Develop your people.
Protect the rhythm.
Model presence.
Make it fun.

And own the energy you bring into the room.

Because happy teams are not born.

They are built.

On purpose.

By design.