Muse

Hey, Yetis, this is Nick and Jack from the Best One Yet podcast. Now, the last company we worked at, they used Paylocity and everything just worked. It wasn't until launching our own media business, this show, that we realized how rare that is. Because Paylocity is one delicious burrito of operational needs. They roll up HR, finance, and IT seamlessly into one delicious bite. When everything wraps together like that all at once, your workforce, your tech stack, your business, you don't need more tools, you don't even need cilantro. You need one solution. And that is why Paylocity built a single platform to connect HR, finance, and IT with AI-driven insights and automated workflows that simplify the complex and power of what's next. Or as we call it, a delicious operational burrito. Yes, we do. Experience a one place for all your HCM needs, besties. So start now at paylocity.com slash one. Paylocity.com slash O-N-E.

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this episode is brought to you by linkedin running a small business means every hire matters a bad hire can cost you time money and momentum a good hire they can help grow your business but finding great talent isn't easy especially when you don't have the time or resources to sift through piles of resumes to find the right fit. That's why LinkedIn built HiringPro, your new hiring partner that screens candidates for you, so instead of sorting through applications, you can spend your time talking to candidates who are actually a good fit. With HiringPro, you can hire with confidence knowing you're getting the best talent for your business. In fact, according to LinkedIn, those hiring with LinkedIn are 24% less likely to need to reopen a role within 12 months compared to the leading competitor. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash tedbiz, spelled B-I-Z. Terms and conditions apply. Many of you know that I study stress and the different contexts where stressors show up. I've been doing this long enough to know what really stresses me out. And one of those things is giving feedback. Don't get me wrong. Receiving feedback isn't always a walk in the park either. When you're waiting to hear about how something's going or how you're performing, you never know what's coming your way. But still, I do have a harder time giving feedback. It's such a tough balance to strike. How can you be honest but still motivating? How can you be firm but also understanding? It's hard to override the feeling of wanting to be liked. And it's hard to deliver candid feedback without feeling like you're hurting someone's feelings. I'm Madhupa Akinola. This is TED Business, a podcast from TED. Our speaker today, executive coach Renee St. Jacques, says that strong feedback is the product of strong emotional intelligence. EQ isn't just the stuff of fluff. It's a real determinant of workplace profitability. And when it comes to crafting careful feedback, she recommends throwing out the stale feedback sandwich and replacing it with the three C's. Then after the talk, I'll discuss my approach to giving feedback. But first, a quick break. This episode is brought to you by PACA. I'm always on the hunt for those staple pieces I can easily pack and know I'll be comfortable no matter what I'm doing. At this point, I don't travel anywhere without my Paka hoodie and original cruise sweater.

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go to www.pakaapparel.com. That's www.pakaapparel.com. Support for today's episode comes from Square. Think about the local businesses that make your community feel like home, the cafe where they know your order, the shop owner who remembers your name, the service that always goes the extra mile. Those moments don't happen by accident. They happen when owners have the right tools to focus less on operations and more on the people walking through their doors. Square brings it all together in one system so businesses can run smoothly and create more of those experiences that keep people coming back. And whether you're just opening your doors or growing into something bigger, Square scales with you. No hidden fees and no surprises. With Square, you get all the tools to run your business with none of the contracts or complexity. And why wait? Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at square.com slash go slash tedbusiness. That's s-q-u-a-r-e dot com slash g-o slash tedbusiness. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. And now, Renée Saint-Jacques takes the TED stage.

A few years ago, I found myself individually coaching both a manager and an employee at the same time. The employee was super confident she'd get promoted, whereas the manager privately shared with me that she had no plans to do so. Why the disconnect? The manager admitted using the feedback sandwich technique, which is praise, feedback, then praise again, embedding that critical feedback in the praise, leading to false expectations. Despite the manager's good intentions, the impact was damaging. There was burnout for the manager for overcompensating. There was a breakdown in trust for the employee and ultimately unachieved goals for the organization. Having coached hundreds of leaders, this is just one of many examples that I've encountered where low emotional intelligence, EQ for short, leads to low results. And that's no surprise given the decades of research that show that EQ can boost profitability. My fascination with human behavior started at an early age, where amidst family dysfunction, I witnessed firsthand how low EQ can leave a negative legacy. And now, as a psychologist, as an executive coach, I'm passionate about drawing from my unique corporate and counseling background to bridge theory and practice when it comes to teams. Managers, I see you. With the pressure to meet bottom line goals, you often have to do more with less. But what got you here, excelling as an individual contributor, doing things yourself, won't get you success as a manager. As a leader, your impact is measured by what you achieve through your team. But let's be honest, increasing the intrinsic motivation and accountability of your team isn't always easy, especially when there's resistance or a breakdown in trust. How do you drive results by unlocking the leadership potential of every team member, no matter their title? I believe it begins by elevating your emotional intelligence with three key skills. Connect, correct, and cultivate. These three C's make up a research-backed framework called Leadership Activated that

I've developed to help leaders practically build trust, guide behavior, and foster growth. The first C is connect. An executive once asked me to repurpose her session time to coach a seasoned employee of hers whose performance was declining. but as soon as I got into session I knew she didn't need coaching on her external skills she needed coaching to really uncover the internal factors influencing her performance. Connection is what unlocks high performance because it creates psychological safety, a key driver to team success, where individuals feel freedom to communicate without fear. Research also shows that the number one factor to job satisfaction is not our pay, but how valued and appreciated we feel. Sometimes we have to go slow to go fast, and trust is an accelerator to business results. And we build trust when we take the time to connect. What would it look like for this manager to connect? Because I see a lot of managers push without connection And what happens is that the behavior gets worse because correction without connection feels like rejection. Connection is what separates our work from our worth. It's about valuing people, not just for what they do, but who they are. The best practice here is when you use a tone of curiosity, you can say something like, I want you to know it's safe to share. Or use open-ended questions like, can you help me understand? Or use phrases like, I see you. I hear you. That's hard. All while paraphrasing back to make the employee feel heard. And when we do, the magic here is that we uncover the root issue. Maybe it's imposter syndrome. Maybe it's a personal issue at play. What makes them feel valued? What motivates them? All without fixing, lecturing, or using the information against them in any way. It's about talking with them, not at them. And sometimes we find what is part of it contributing to this resistance. It's actually us. Lean in to that insight. It's a gift.

Instead of defending your intention, model owning your impact. Saying something like, it looks like I need to work on that. Goes a long way. The first C, connect, is not a nice to have. Even if it takes more than one meeting, the only goal is to make an employee feel seen. And while that's essential, not providing any developmental guidance is actually coddling. The second C is correct. I once coached a brilliant COO, but he would redo his team's work instead of correcting them. his over-functioning enabled their under-functioning the story he told himself was feedback was hurting people but when you look at the definition of a manager which is to steward the organization's goals through people feedback given with psychological safety is actually empowering. Now that we've separated work from worth, we can have a compassionate focus on behavior. Remember, we are correcting the behavior, not the person. What would it look like for this manager to correct? Well, one thing I see a lot of managers do is hint. Hinting doesn't work. Effective correction balances clarity and kindness. No one can read your mind. Instead of saying deadlines are important, we can say the deadline was X. This was submitted on Y. We need all deadlines met from now on because of Z impact. Authors Heenan Stone break down the psychology behind why we do this. The feedback sits at the intersection of two competing human needs. On one hand, we want to learn and grow. On another hand, we want to be worthy and enough just the way we are without change. Vague feedback equals vague commitment equals zero chance of change. And no one is motivated by shame. So managers are so much more successful when they use the word and instead of but. We.

instead of you? Your client dedication is impressive, and can we collaborate to improve communication? Unlike the ineffective feedback sandwich, the first C, connect, establishes enough trust for the second C, correct, which is that clear, kind guidance. And because connect and correct is not a one and done, the third C is cultivate. Just like a garden needs ongoing care to flourish, leadership potential is cultivated by ongoing coaching. Yet many managers will wait until the last minute to a year-end review to give vague feedback, which of course erodes trust, Whereas research shows that real-time, informal, frequent feedback is far more effective. And when we ask our teams open-ended coaching questions like, what do you think we should do? It empowers the whole team to step up with solutions, which unlocks the leadership potential of both our team as well as our own, because we're trading in burnout for a culture of ownership. This talk is actually not about feedback or the latest management trend. Connect, correct, and cultivate are these three C's that we may excel in one, but the truth, they're like a tripod. And if we don't excel, in all three of them, our ability to activate leadership falls apart. But you may think that EQ is fluff, that a focus on people moves us further away from the bottom line. However, I am in the trenches with leaders daily, and I know firsthand that emotional intelligence is our greatest strategy to results because our work is only as good as our work with other people. The secret to high performance is simple. We raise the intrinsic motivation and accountability of our teams when they first feel seen, heard, and valued. However, leadership isn't just about performance. I know firsthand that low EQ can create cycles of mistrust, disconnection, and pain. I dream of a healthier world where we don't just push on the world-changing missions of our organizations, but with the accelerated and unprecedented paced results through non-human

means, we must anchor those achievements in what is uniquely human. Not replacing, but retaining connection as the cornerstone and the launching pad to all of our progress. I believe we can raise the emotional intelligence of entire workplaces to make them as kind as they are effective to create an impact that's both measurable and meaningful. We're not just leaders, we're cycle breakers. So today I'm asking you, What kind of legacy do you want to leave as a leader? Will it be defined solely by the what? The bottom line goals. Or will it transcend to the how? How through connection, we created an impact that truly mattered. Together, we can architect the leadership of tomorrow. Thank you.

this episode is brought to you by walmart business the best leaders might tell you the work that moves an organization forward doesn't happen in spreadsheets or supply chain emails it happens when you have the space to think big that's the idea behind walmart business it's built to take the friction out of running an organization so your team isn't losing hours to procurement logistics when they could just be focused on the problems that actually matter With an ever-expanding business assortment, everyday low prices, and fast, reliable shipping, Walmart Business keeps your operations running smoothly. Shop online, in-store, or through the Walmart Business app. However works best for you. Simpler operations, smarter spending. It's Walmart built for your business. Sign up for a free Walmart business account at business.walmart.com. Hi there, it's Adam Grant from Ted's Rethinking Podcast, and this episode is

brought to you by ServiceNow. I get to spend my days studying how people think and what it actually takes to change our minds. It's work I find deeply meaningful. But even in meaningful work, there's still busy work. The admin, the repetitive processes, the invisible load that pulls attention away from what really matters. That's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it. Start to finish. Cases closed. Requests handled. No extra work for you. To learn how to put AI To try to work for people, visit servicenow.com.

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what can I do to make your life easier? Or what do you need from me? It's my way of owning my own impact in the relationship and my responsibility in the workplace. And it opens up a line for more honest conversation where the person I'm giving feedback can give feedback to me. And sometimes what they ask for is something I can't give, but it becomes something we can negotiate over or talk about frankly. If I'm unable to meet the need, I always give them a specific reason why or offer something else that's aligned with their request. For instance, I once had somebody who wasn't my direct report ask for regular meetings. My schedule just couldn't accommodate that. But I asked if it would be okay for us to have quarterly meetings, and they said yes. We both walked away from that interaction feeling satisfied. Clear, direct feedback is often a way of showing care, even when it's not universally positive. It's a way of making someone feel seen at work. And we all want that. That's it for today. TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced by Hannah Kingsley Ma, edited by Alejandra Salazar, and fact-checked by Julia Dickerson. Special thanks to Maria Ladias, Farrah Degrunge, Daniela Balarezo, Tansika Sagmanibong, and Roxanne Heilash. I'm Madhupak and Ola thanks for listening

Hey Yetis, this is Nick and Jack from the Best One Yet podcast Now, the last company we worked at they used Paylocity and everything just worked It wasn't until launching our own media business this show that we realized how rare that is Because Paylocity is one delicious burrito of operational needs They roll up HR finance and IT seamlessly into one delicious bite. When everything wraps together like that all at once, your workforce, your tech stack, your business, you don't need more tools. You don't even need cilantro. You need one solution. And that is why Paylocity built a single platform to connect HR, finance, and IT with AI-driven insights and automated workflows that simplify the complex and power of what's next. Or as we call it, a delicious operational burrito. Yes, we do. Experience a one place for all your HCM needs, besties. So start now at paylossity.com slash one, paylossity.com slash O-N-E.

Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90% with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust Stamps.com. Go to Stamps.com and use code PODCAST to try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days.

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