What happens when doing your job quietly turns into managing your boss’s ego?

In this Relationships at Work mini-episode, Russel Lolacher unpacks the real damage caused by bootlicking cultures — where praise is safer than honesty, silence is rewarded over truth, and employees spend more energy protecting leaders than improving the work.

Through a simple story and clear leadership reflections, this episode explores how fear-based leadership erodes psychological safety, engagement, trust, and culture — often without leaders even realizing it’s happening.

You’ll also hear three practical leadership shifts that help move teams from ego maintenance to mutual respect — and from performance to real relationships at work.

Because nobody was hired to be their boss’s emotional support human.

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