Stick with me on this one. We are not advocating that you take your attorneys and staff on forced marches or go to the parking lot for burpees. There are several reasons why this element of health should be a part of your firm, even if you are running a law firm. Dick Winters, the commanding officer of Easy Company depicted in Band of Brothers, understood the connection between fitness and mental resilience. “Stay in top physical shape—physical stamina is the root of mental toughness. Develop your team. If you know your people, are fair in setting realistic goals and expectations, and lead by example, you will develop teamwork.”
Granted, most people will point out that Dick Winters was running an infantry unit during World War II, and the quote is more applicable to his situation than theirs. The degree to which soldiers must fit physically differs, but the sentiment still applies. Here at Spotlight Branding, we incorporated physical fitness into our culture. One of our laws is that we focus on giving value to receive it and are never afraid to give away the secret sauce. With that in mind, here’s what we’ve done to bring physical fitness into the workspace—and you can integrate any of these tips into your firm.
Hire A Coach
Once a month, we have a personal trainer come into the office. We set him up in a private conference room, and each of our employees goes and meets with him for a half hour. This isn’t mandatory, but everyone uses him. During these short meetings, our trainer discusses nutrition, gives us meal plans, looks at progress, measures body fat percentage and weight, and programs workouts for each person based on their fitness and goals. Having a trainer means catered advice. Everyone in our office has someone to speak to when they have questions about fitness and nutrition.
Because not every office meets in a physical office, it‘s important to note that we have dealt with this, too. Our remote employees have an assigned day with the trainer that differs from when he meets with people at our office. This way, the trainer spends less time in our office than he has to, and all of our employees have the same access, regardless of whether they work remotely.
Run A Nutrition Challenge
There are several ways you can approach this. Programs like the Whole30 and 75 Hard are common, but our office created its own. One of our core values is Take Action. We choose action over excuses. We have an internal locus of control and always ask what we can do about a situation. With that in mind, our vice president created the Take Action 60. Over 60 days, we were given points for eating, exercising, drinking water (I failed miserably), and reading about fitness. We used it as a voluntary, communal event based on shared suffering and common goals that are still present.
Build A Gym In Your Office
We did this. At our last office, we had Spotlight Alley. There was a rowing machine, dumbbells, Apple Fitness, foam rollers, and a board for tracking results. Building your own gym will be a tall ask for most offices, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help pay for a gym membership for your employees. You can add the communal component by posting workouts that everyone can do throughout the week.
It’s about showing your employees you care about their well-being outside the office. You can create a space where people can discuss their fitness levels without fear of criticism. For many, going to the gym for the first time is one of the hardest things about getting started. There’s that famous quote from Richard Branson where he said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, but treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” This speaks to the latter half of that.
Spotlight Branding
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