Principle #13 – Personality Conflicts Aren’t About Personality. The Provocation You know the scene: two talented people avoiding eye contact in meetings, Slack messages that feel like subtweets, and a tension you could cut with a butter knife. You’ve tried pep talks, mediation, maybe even a team lunch. Nothing sticks. Here’s the plot twist: it’s
Principle #12 – Real skin-in-the-game creates true accountability. Ever notice how people take way better care of rental cars when the deposit is $500? That’s skin in the game—when the outcomes of a decision hit you directly. Why It Works Accountability isn’t about job titles or performance reviews. It’s about feeling the impact of your
Principle #11 – Every solution is first a hypothesis. Reality test. Here’s a secret scientists know that many leaders forget: the first solution is almost always wrong. Or at least, incomplete. We fall in love with our ideas because they feel elegant and clever—“This will fix everything!” But in reality? Every solution is just a
People Energy Principle #8 – Each human is uniquely wired for something. Notice this. Every person on your team comes wired with a unique mix of talents, quirks, and passions. Some have laser focus; others are idea factories. Some thrive in chaos; others need structure like oxygen. Yet too many leaders treat people like one-size-fits-all
People Energy Principle #7 – Change Change People by Assuming They Can’t Change You’ve probably heard it before: “People can change if they really want to!” Cute. Inspiring. Totally unreliable as a leadership strategy. The Hard Truth Most people don’t dramatically change who they are just because you gave them a pep talk or a
People Energy Principle #5 – Human nature isn’t what we wish it were. We often fall into a trap: That’s nuts. That’s not how human nature works. Reality Check on Human Nature Humans have free will. We have our own goals, values, and life purposes. We each bring unique superpowers to the table—and also quirks,
People Energy Principle #3 – Generally speaking, people want to do good work. Too many leaders build systems as if their people will slack off at every chance. Swipe cards. Monitoring software. Meetings to check if work is getting done. The assumption? People are lazy by default. But here’s the truth: most people want to
People Energy Principle #1: A Business is the Conversion of People Energy into Economic Value We often talk about business in terms of products, revenue streams, and market share. But what if we flip the script? What if, at its core, a business is nothing more—and nothing less—than the conversion of people energy into economic
Practicing HR with a People Science Mindset Performentor practices human resources (HR) and team development with a People Science mindset. This is one way we set ourselves apart from alternative service providers. Let’s talk about what we mean by People Science and why it’s useful. What is People Science? There is a field of behavior
If you haven’t seen the turnover rate on companies that have bad benefits, you might want to read this. How can businesses become friendlier? We are not talking about greeting customers with a smile, offering free samples or saying “thank you.” We are referring to businesses implementing benefits, practices and policies that support employees to
