“I want them to respect and fear me, and not to waste my time on stupid ideas,” is what bosses dream of. This modus operandi works in monopoly but crashes at the first signs of growth and competition. Then employees get defensive, silent and indifferent. The bosses believe that they control everything.

Oleksandr Sudarkin, MBA program director, practicing coach and psychologist tols about psychological safety assessment instruments. He referred to ideas of Amy Edmondson from the Harvard Business School.

Oleksandr Sudarkin advises to feedback based on the three-to-one ratio, when each negative point is matched by three positive ones.

- It is like a communication bank. If you want to spend one negative token, pay with three positive ones. No loans are available in this bank. You can afford to abandon this rule only if you are dealing with the highly specialized and highly developed engineering teams where team members set their own high standards. However, they are only 10% – 15% of all organizations, Oleksandr stresses out.

If you want to know how to follow your facial expressions when you speak to the employees, how to thank people and why asking “Why did you do it?” is harmful, visit our episode record at: this link.