Matt Paknis Leadership Development

"Its weak people who are dangerous, who lash out uncontrollably and hurt you. Strong people can walk away- no repercussions." - Sophie Hannah "The first relationship you need to master is with you, your body, your mind, with your heart to understand what triggers you; what makes you upset, what causes you take chances." - Richa Chadha #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #selfawareness

"Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech."- Benjamin Franklin "Rhode Island: small state, big issues. And by big, I mean issues involving questionable dealings." - Aninymous "The problem is there's no credibility in the judicial system, a system steeped in retaliation and selective repression." - Leopoldo Lopez Below please find an updated Toray vs. Paknis  timeline, dated 10-10-2024, explaining why Toray Plastics America (TPA) sued me in Providence Federal Court in December 2018 and threatened my publisher with a lawsuit in June of 2019. Please read more here: https://mattpaknis.blogspot.com/2024/10/my-constitutional-rights-to-free-speech.html?m=1 https://bjgalaw.com/business-attorney-boston-blog/

"Being busy does not always mean real work." - Thomas A. Edison "Don't confuse activity with productivity" - Stephen Covey "Organizational busy work tends to expand to fill the working day." - Tom DeMarco #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #productivity Bullies tend to require excessive paperwork. This overwhelms workers and undermines production, so the bully can further critique workers for not doing their jobs well.

"The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." - Alexis de Tocqueville "My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth." - Abraham Lincoln "Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." - Margaret Thatcher #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"""Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust." - Lance Secretan #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #transparency #integrity #Authenticity #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

  “ Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere .” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

"Error is always more busy than truth." - Hosea Ballou "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Albert Einstein "A life has value as it attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion." - Simone de Beauvoir #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #integrity Bullies demand useless reports, they claim to be essential, to be completed in unreasonable time frames, often forcing supervisors and workers to use excessive overtime, so the bully can further chastise their targets for not managing their time well.

"Educate the masses, elevate their standard of intelligence, and you will certainly have a successful nation." - Alexander Graham Bell "The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.” - Albert Einstein "I can only say that I view (education) as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in." - Abraham Lincoln #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

Defense mechanisms are unconscious coping strategies the mind uses to deal with stress or difficult emotions. They can be positive, but can also be unhelpful ways to avoid emotions or excuse unhealthy behavior. "Disinformation is more than just lying: it's the denial and twisting of reality in order to present some desired image to the rest of the world." - Will Hurd #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #integrity  

"Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns (or lawsuits). Animals know when you are afraid; a coward knows when you are not." - David Seabury "The purpose of [a lawsuit] is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass." - L. Ron Hubbard #frivolouslawsuits #maliciousprosecution #TortiousInterference  #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #Transparency  #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

Bullying bosses are toxic and abusive.  They hurt and undermine their workers. Successful Leaders build healthy dynamics.  They uplift thought and conduct. "Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves (and others)." - John C. Maxwell #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact Training in bullying environments is informal, non procedural, and there are many moving targets, so any mistake or misstep can be blamed on the worker. Bullying managers set up their workers to fail and often entrap their subordinates to knock their confidence. Successful leaders do everything in their power to help their people excel.

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." - Charles Dickens  "He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own." - Confucius  "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." - Albert Einstein  "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" - Martin Luther King, Jr.  #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"No (person) ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don't knock your friends. Don't knock your enemies. Don't knock yourself." - Alfred Lord Tennison #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplace #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #decency

Ruth Benedict described the Japanese culture as a “shame culture,” contrasting it to the United States’ “guilt culture;” Japanese culture was founded on feelings of shame and how one’s moral conduct appeared to outsiders; in U.S. culture, the emphasis fell on an individual’s internal conscience. This explains why Toray Plastics American Executives filed a frivolous lawsuit against me and my book, to flex their egos and bring me harm.  Japanese executives would find this shameful. #frivolouslawsuits #maliciousprosecution #TortiousInterference #justice #decency #transparency #successfulleadersarentbullies

Boat Building Students! "Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." - Dalai Lama "People do their best when they can change how things work to exceed their limits by looking for innovative ways to improve the organization." - James M. Kouzes #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact Bullied workers are blamed and held accountable and punished for not meeting irrational and unrealistic goals rather than encouraged to find and remove root problem causes to prevent similar performance gaps.

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit." - Arnold Glasow “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” - Ralph Nader #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy (bullying) is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity." - Robert A. Heinlein "It's the bully who's insecure." - Shay Mitchell "Bullying is a cowardly act. It's easy to bully someone when they aren't looking or when they can't fight back." - Ronda Rousey "The most talented and decent employees are most often workplace bullying targets. They trigger a bully’s great fear of being exposed as an incompetent fraud.” (Paknis, 2018) #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #decency #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - John Dalberg-Acton "The weight of corruption creates a dent, forcing the world to become slanted, so much so — that justice just slips off." - Suzy Kassem "Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases." - John Adams #maliciousprosecution #TortiousInterference #frivolouslawsuits #transparency #justice #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"Leadership contains elements of good management, yet it requires you to inspire, to build durable trust. For an organization to win, leadership means empowering people and committing them  deeper than any job description." - Stanley A. McChrystal #leadersarentbullies #stepup Workplace bullied workers are expected to sacrifice their life balance, to be given unrealistic expectations, while supervisors are pushed into the corner with no way out but to either be passive bystanders or to protest bullying and be targeted by peer mobs and terminated.

  "Negotiation is empathy. If you can't put yourself in the seat of the other person you're speaking with, you're not going to do well. It's not about being a bully." - Marc Randolph "We believe that economics does not necessarily have to be a zero-sum game; it can be a win-win proposition for everyone involved if they have the tools to succeed." - Ron Kind #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"Once people sense their own power, no authoritarian government can stand against the people who are determined to be free." - Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj “I juggle both work and parenting by ensuring my team feels ownership and entrepreneurship in their job. I always look to hire people who can do what I can’t, better than I ever could.” – Rebecca Minkoff #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #happymothersday #transparency #selfless #selfawareness #innerpeace #MentalHealth #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

 

"Were you bullied?  I’m guessing yes because of your sheer focus on it …. Serious question" A clueless contact wrote me this question.  As written, in my young childhood I was abused and assaulted for several years.  Thanks to my size, I was not  targeted by schoolyard bullies. However, I specialized in addressing corporate bullies throughout my consulting career. This  Ied to my being asked to write my book.   Between 2018 and 2024, Toray Plastics America, with colluding and complicit RI Federal Court Justices, bullied me with a frivolous lawsuit, in an attempt to silence my book and to destroy me.   Until passive by-standing ends, and intervening to stop bullying and abuse is normalized and laws protect defenseless children and employees from bullies, I will keep posting.

"Sensing control in life and having realistic expectations about day-to-day challenges are  to managing stress, a critical ingredient to a happy, healthy and rewarding life." - Marilu Henner "Never permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure of the moment, ever." - Joe Maddon #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #transparency #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct Bullied organizations and individuals display PTSD like symptoms. Like a deer in headlights, they freeze when stressed by abusive and bullying behaviors. It’s a fear-based response, where criticisms and threats evoke memories of a critical parent or a bully or of being abused. #mentalhealth #innerpeace

"But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea." - Matthew 18:6 "Like a physical body, the church has many individual members functioning together as one, all directed by the head." - I Corinthians 12-13, 27 The saying "a fish rots from the head down" means that leadership is the root cause of problems in an organization or society.

"Narcissism is not about self love. It's a clinical trait that belies a deep sense of emptiness, low self-esteem, emotional detachment, self-loathing, extreme problems with intimacy." - Drew Pinsky #leadersarentbullies #honest #selfless #selfawareness   #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

Bullies try to "fill your mind with meaningless stimuli in a world preoccupied with meaningless things, to steal your peace." - Marianne Williamson "Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive." - Matt Cameron "When it's darkest, focus on the light." - Aristotle Onassis #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #innerpeace Bullying managers leverage email, voicemail, text, cell phones and other bullies to communicate unclear and accusatory messages meant to create fear.  These threats make the target defensive and preoccupied with the bully and not with production and healthy performance / functioning.

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." - Abraham Lincoln "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." - George Washington "Do you mind if I sit back a little? Because your breath is very bad." - Donald Trump #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"Bystanders are present in over 80-85% of all workplace bullying incidents, but only intervene about 15% of the time." - Sara D. Anderson "What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander." - Elie Wiesel "Bullies may be the perpetrators of evil, but it is the evil of passivity of all those who know what is happening and never intervene that perpetuates such abuse." - Philip Zimbardo #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"Courtrooms are battlegrounds where society’s bullies (corporations, institutions, universities, government entities, justices) and the oppressed (employees, customers, suppliers, citizens) clash." - Kilroy J. Oldster "A lawsuit can be a weapon.“ - Bari Weiss "When I got tied up in a big lawsuit filed by my previous (long term client and employer, Toray Plastics America), I seriously thought my career was over." - Park Bo-young #leadersarentbullies #HealthyWorkplaces #maliciousprosecution #TortiousInterference #frivolouslawsuits #justice #truthwins #metoo #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

"There's strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations." - Stephen Covey "People striving for approval from others become phony." - Ichiro Suzuki #LeadersArentBullies #HealthyWorkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact To play the hero, bullies create and put out their own manageable fires. They create and expect others to solve absurd problems, to chastise and control those beholden to the bully and who fail to meet these unrealistic performance expectations.