Irrational Expertise

An MBA in the Emotional Drivers of your Workplace and Career

by Dr. Judith Sills

Who Do You Trust? And Why?

Do you trust your boss to do what he promises? Do you trust your manager to have your back? Do you trust your teammates to tote their share of the load and to resist hogging more than their share of the credit? Do you trust the CEO to live the inspirational messages he has posted on the walls? Read More

Great Employees Create Customer Passion

Our parking attendant, Felix, got fired last week. His customers - a disconnected batch of urban strangers — rose up in revolt. Felix has his job back, and we clients have returned to the anonymity of our various makes and models. But with satisfaction, a sense of justice, a perhaps a keener look at the unknown impact of our own employees. Read More

High Touch Makes for Hard Cash

I stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco recently, where I got a personal reminder of the power of High Touch to sooth the client soul - in this case mine. Read More

The Dead Zone

Of course I know the PC attitude: welcome breather, festive spirit, friends and family, blah blah blah. The truth is though, the Dead Zone at work between Christmas and New Year's makes me antsy. Read More

A Nod to the Gods of Early Admissions

My daughter passed the news to me at dinner.

“Swear if I tell you something, you won’t mention it again.”

“I swear.”

“Cornell posts early admissions decisions on Friday, at five PM.” Read More

Tenderize Your Customers

Even when I walk in looking like dog meat, I always get some compliment from the sales woman at the boutique I prefer.

"Love your shoes", "Love your bag". When desperate she'll purr, "Love those earrings," probably recalling that she sold them to me herself. Read More

My New New Boss

Shuffle Ball change. That's the current dance step in so many offices.

It's ironic in a way. With the job market frozen so that even the unhappiest amongst us are advised to take a deep breath and endure for the nonce, some companies are undergoing internal change at an unexpected pace. Read More

Part II: Good Girls on the Line

The last post on this subject described an emotional response pattern that SOME women have to one type of man: namely, the good girl's automatic, often barely conscious, knee jerk need to please a difficult Alpha male. (Not all Alphas are difficult, arrogant or temperamental. It just all the ones that you know.) Read More

On Crazy Shrinks

Our patients. Clients. Call them what you will. They suspect us all the time anyway. That we are secretly the crazy ones; they the stolid norm. They come for our help and often we heal, but still that resentful suspicion lingers. They may sit in the patient chair, but always slightly the doctor is devalued as much as he is idealized. Read More

Good Girls and Alpha Guys

"I cannot stand to disappoint him. It goes way beyond doing my best. It's doing my best with a claw in my chest." -- Third year associate, speaking of the law partner to whom she is assigned. Read More

Emotional Leadership

This will be a blog about emotion in the workplace. Basically, it will be an ongoing discussion of the wolf in the sheep's suit we all wear to work. Read More

Dr. Judith Sills is a media psychologist, keynoter, and workplace consultant, as well as author the Excess Baggage and five other popular psychology books.

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