Most leaders know when someone isn't working out, for months – sometimes years. So why does it take so many of them so long to do anything about it? Dr. Dennis Davis has a theory, and it has a lot more to do with the manager than the employee.

This is part one of our two-part series about letting people go with empathy and dignity.

Topic Highlights:

– The real cost of the “performing-at-35%-is-better-than-zero” rationalization

– Why the "myth of niceness" is actually the least kind thing a manager can do for an underperformer

– The skill/will matrix: a simple diagnostic tool for knowing whether you have a performance problem, a motivation problem, or a fit problem

– How PIPs are too often used incorrectly, and what doing so says about your organization's integrity

– Why employee success is ultimately contingent on your leadership style

Guest Bio:

Dr. Dennis Davis is a clinical psychologist and national expert in conflict resolution at Ogletree Deakins, a multinational law firm specializing in labor and employment law.

Episode Links:

Ogletree Deakins

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How do you work with people you genuinely can't stand? Not someone who rubs you the wrong way in a meeting. Someone on the opposite side of your moral compass. Adam Kahane has spent 35 years finding that answer in some of the most intractable conflicts in modern history. His conclusion? You don't blow the system up. You find the cracks.

Topic Highlights:

– The simple tool for moving from blame to agency in any stuck situation

– What calling someone your "enemy" can actually cost you

– What apartheid learnings say about how systems change from the inside

– Why civility and self-regulation are the most strategic leadership skills you'll ever build

– The Leonard Cohen framework that might be Adam’s best leadership advice

Guest Bio:

Adam Kahane is the co-founder of Reos Partners, a conflict resolution facilitator who has worked in over 50 countries, and a member of the Order of Canada.

Episode Links:

Reos Partners

Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems

Collaborating with the Enemy

Stanford Social Innovation Review: "Working With Cracks"

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What's the fastest way to kill any chance of actually moving the needle on a big, complex project? According to longtime NYC power broker Kathryn Wylde, it's defensiveness.

Kathryn knows this because she spent 50 years dragging billionaires, union bosses, and city officials into the same room and getting them to agree on the best way forward. And she’s here to share how she did it.

Topic Highlights:

– The power of a specific ask and why most change efforts fail

– How to reframe a problem so that the people who resist it become its biggest advocates

– Why defensiveness, not disagreement, is the real roadblock, and the one move that eliminates it faster than any argument

– The million dollar leadership advice she gave to Zohran Mamdani

– The Amazon HQ2 cautionary tale

Guest Bio:

Kathryn Wylde is the former President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, and the woman the city’s most powerful people call when they need to actually get something done in NYC.

Episode Links:

Partnership for New York City

Kathryn Wylde, Connector of New York’s Powerful, Is Retiring

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