Matt Mochary

Fear distorts a leader's perception of reality, resulting in exaggerated negative predictions that prevent them from taking necessary but difficult actions.

"It's not because I'm magician or a genius, it's because when someone's in fear, they're gripped. They can't see reality, their brain is making very exaggerated predictions. Whereas when someone is not..."

Using non-judgmental 'I' statements allows you to share perceptions of someone's emotional state without triggering defensiveness.

"Finally she said, 'I perceive you to be an anger.' So it's an I statement and it's simply what she's perceiving. There's no judgment. That was able to punch through my anger and then I woke up and wen..."

The success of a layoff is determined by whether the news is delivered personally by a manager or through a dehumanizing mass announcement.

"The biggest marker that I've seen between a botched layoff and a successful layoff is at the moment someone hears that they no longer have a job, did they hear it from their manager in a one-on-one? I..."