Avoid kissing your business's ecosystem goodbye: Your leap at handling communication makes a world of difference.

Lessons from the frog:  Are you comfortable in your own skin?  Routine gut checks prevent "winging it" and croaking early.

A frog's skin is very permeable. It can absorb harmful toxins in the environment quite easily.   That is why a frog is a good indicator of the health of our ecosystem.  What about your own "skin"?  What about your business's ecosystem? 

Are you thick-skinned?  

Your tolerance to your environment is often gauged by how thick your "skin" is.  Therefore, if you are thick-skinned, you can easily withstand verbal abuse without taking it personally.  For you, having "thick skin" can be a great asset.  It is derived from a progression of your primal human survival instinct.    You are able to prevent harmful communication from convincing you that you deserve the punishment or that the message is factual about you.  You won't be crushed.  You will move on.  You will maintain a positive mindset conducive to great performance, and enjoyment of life itself. 

What are the liabilities of being thick-skinned? 

Contrarily, having "thick skin" can also be a liability.     You want to make sure you aren't screening out helpful communication by impulsively misclassifying communications.   Constructive criticism can be helpful to your self-improvement.  It takes you to new levels of achievement.   If you are a perfectionist, you may actually have a hard time with this.   If you thought your performance was flawless, you could tune out the message and deny any imperfection.   Maybe you justify this by believing the critic was out of his mind.  This prevents you from having a flawless performance next time.  You simply won't apply the corrective action needed to do so.  You live in a false sense of your level of achievement. 

Healthy receptivity:   What's getting underneath your skin?

Some frogs have suction pads on their feet.  They can control when to cling and not to cling.   What should you let through your "skin" and "cling" to?   Well, you could accept and "cling" to constructive criticism and instantly feel deflated.  Your new reality isn't a pleasant one.  You were reveling in your big win, if not literally, at least mentally.  Now remind yourself that you are in a much better position to have a flawless performance next time.  You now know where you can improve!   Your better, future performance hinges on your ability to apply the critique to your next performance and successfully correct your errors the next time around.   Remember to thank the communicator (assigned or unassigned coach) for the helpful tip.  He cares.  He did you a favor.

Is being thin-skinned a liability?

A frog can hear it's own species up to a mile away.  Human's can too.   However, unlike the frog's biological limitation with it's own very permeable skin, you have the ability to adapt your analogous "skin", with practice and time.  Let in the good, screen out the bad.   Be honest with yourself.   Are you thin-skinned and you frequently let harmful, abusive, communication disturb you?   Like the frog, toxins can poison you by getting through your "skin".  These could be called "verbal toxins".  If you feel that you are thin-skinned,  "thicken your skin" to avoid penetration of these verbal toxins.    One way to do this is to concentrate on pleasant thoughts that will distract you from replaying the abusive communication in your mind.  Another way, is to remind yourself of the context.  You may know that the communicator is having personal problems, or he is taking medication, etc.   Can you nullify the message by repeatedly reminding yourself of this?    Lastly, you may find that you need to communicate with others to restore your mood.  Some frogs urinate on their offspring to keep them moist.  It's a bit unpleasant to think about, but these frogs are nurturing.  So make sure you find nurturing humans that help you forget harmful remarks or conversations, without needing to apply urine.  Trusted, supportive co-workers can help you get your positive mindset back quick.   You don't need to tell them what happened.  Maintaining confidentiality, especially in the office, is often best.  Rumors can make the situation worse.  You can talk about something totally unrelated that will help you forget the abusive communication.  There is something to be said about laughter being your best medicine. 

Practice.  Practice. Practice...and know when to rest on your lily pad.

Frogs can live just as well in water as on land.   Frogs can change their color depending on their surroundings.   Can you be "amphibious", or adapt to many different environments and situations?   You will get better at identifying helpful vs. harmful communication and being thick-skinned with practice.  No sane person likes to be in a situation where they are hearing abusive communication.  Don't you think the frog would keep toxic chemicals from penetrating his skin if he could?  If you are able to avoid the abuser, you are better off doing so.  Wouldn't that be easy if you could do this every time it happened?  Back to reality!  As you know, this isn't always an option.  Why not prepare yourself for the worse situations?  These situations can be spontaneous.  Sometimes you don't have a choice.  The disparaging words are uttered out before you can flee the area.   The more times you expose yourself to these situations, the more opportunities you will have to try different approaches to become healthfully, and selectively, thick-skinned.  Pace yourself with practice.  You may not be able to jump a distance of over 20 times your body length...but you can do this!    Protect your positive mindset.  Like the frog, toxins can poison you by getting through your "skin".

You can improve the health of your business's ecosystem.

I've talked a lot about you. There are employees at your business who are very similar to you but many are different. What about all the staff at your business? How thick are their "skins"? Are they developing better listening skills? Are they handling the receipt of distressing communication in a healthy way?   Is the communication from management, such as during project and performance reviews, skillfully delivered to the listener in a positive way so it will be absorbed and improvement points will more likely be applied?   If a co-worker feels the brunt of an explosive, irate customer, is he able to recover quickly?  If he doesn't, how does that impact your business?  Is it possible that both the customer and the employee can both eventually be happy?     How can you help your staff learn to adapt and have a healthy, mental attitude more of the time?   How strong is your company/co-worker support system?   These are all questions that are good "gut checks" to determine the health of your business's ecosystem.

If you are lucky enough to hear the cacophony of frogs lulling you to sleep this Summer, remember, this is a reminder to count your blessings for these "coaches from the swamps".  Hopefully, your love of them goes beyond skin deep.

Thanking the frog:   The frog, and it's approximately 5000 species, can teach us so much more.   It with great sadness that I've come tor realize we have put about one third of the population of frogs at risk for extinction.  From the food chain and elimination of bugs, the frog is of vital importance to our ecosystem.   Humans are just beginning to discover our world.  We've only completely genetically sequenced about 175 organisms.  Many of these organisms are similar to humans in astonishing ways.   In example, there are at least 1700 genes in the African clawed frog genome that are similar to humans.  Imagine what we don't know about the rest of the frogs, nevermind all other organisms!    We can all do our part to protect the frogs by eliminating pollution, and supporting wildlife organizations with our volunteered time and financial contributions.

Please share the frogs' message and add your comments.  Help us recognize and appreciate our "warts".  Thank you.