There's a small store in San Francisco that's being run entirely by an artificial intelligence. It approves every request that comes its way, it has never once gotten angry with anyone, and it has answered twenty seven separate late arrivals with some version of no worries. When the New York Times asked the employees what their boss is like to work for, they said they like her. They meant it.
The store is also losing money, and four months in, not one person working there is better at their job than they were on day one.
In this episode of the Leader Fuel Podcast, Dr. Linda uses that store as a mirror, and then goes straight into the psychology sitting underneath it. She covers the fifty year old bias that makes humans physically stall before delivering bad news, and the uncomfortable detail that the bias gets stronger with the people you're closest to.
She walks through the shock study that found uncertainty is harder on the human body than certain pain, which changes what your silence is actually doing to the person you think you're protecting.
And she makes the case that the phrase psychological safety has been quietly stripped of half its meaning by leaders who were looking for permission.
You'll leave with three questions to sit with and five things you can do before Friday, including the single sentence of framing that roughly doubled how many students acted on hard feedback in a landmark study.
Dr. Linda Travelute is an Executive Director with John Maxwell Leadership and a certified Coach, Trainer, Keynote Speaker, and Corporate Facilitator who works with business leaders from startup to sustained success. She is the founder and CEO of Maximized Leaders Coaching & Training and Host of the Leader Fuel Podcast
Check out MaximizedLeaders.com for coaching programs and ways we can serve you and your team.
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Leader Maxxing Brief: https://linda-travelute/LeaderMaxxingBrief
KEYWORDS: nice boss vs good leader, being liked as a leader, MUM effect, giving hard feedback, psychological safety and accountability, wise feedback, self determination theory at work, people pleasing leadership, John Maxwell Law of Addition
