Matt Paknis Leadership Development

Healthy organizations are characterized by members and associates who are safe, secure, transparent, and self-aware.  This results in performance and production excellence and satisfaction. “Trust starts with trustworthy leadership. It must be built into the corporate culture.” – Barbara Brooks Kimmel "If you don't have trust inside your company, then you can't transfer it to your customers." --Roger Staubach #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

“When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will feel unfair, but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth just like you did.” – Jill Blakeway #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct  

"The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself." - Mark Caine #leadersarentbullies #stepup #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct  People and organizations who transcend workplace bullying start the process by identifying, acknowledging, and accepting the truth about bullies in their organizations.

 “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important … They justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” — T.S. Eliot #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

Self-scrutiny, transparency, #honesty, and selflessness. These traits are foreign to, and abhorred by, bullies. Successful leaders and organizations embrace these characteristics. "The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool." - Stephen King "Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of." – Bob Vanourek #leadersarentbullies #stepup #healthyworkplaces  #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct

Yet only 12% of witnesses and targets address bullying at work.  “If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.” - Albert Einstein “ Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.” - Bob Marley #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct  

 

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Power concedes nothing without allowance. It never did and never will. Identify what any people will submit to and you know the exact measure of injustice they will tolerate." -Frederick Douglass Placating bullies’ needs, wants, and moods takes precedence over performance and organizational health. The organization’s employees learn how to placate the abuser, often at the cost of profits, performance, health, happiness, freedom, and functioning.  #leadersarentbullies

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct  

 "They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." - Andy Warhol #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct If a bully is not stopped and treated with professional help, the chance of them stopping and becoming a different and healthier person is slim. Their abusive behaviors will continue throughout adulthood, affecting the type of life they lead and lives they impact. #stepup

 “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.” - William Faulkner  #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.”- Michael J. Fox “People who repeatedly attack your confidence and self-esteem are quite aware of your potential, even if you are not.”- Wayne Gerard Trotman #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct A workplace bullying target who can’t address or stop or prevent this abuse may become despondent at home. In turn,  bullying influences everyone in a target's life, not just the victim.

 “Like all bullies, they’re cowards underneath the swagger" - Robert Pattinson #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

“The mediocre leader tells. The good leader explains. The superior leader demonstrates. The great leader inspires.” - William Arthur Ward “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others.” - Robert Louis Stevenson #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

  “Since narcissists deep down feel themselves to be faultless, it is inevitable that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive the conflict as the world’s fault.”  – M. Scott Peck #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." - Viktor E. Frankl #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct How employers respond to bullying at work is a litmus test reflecting their ethical framework.  Does your employer pass?!

 "Remorse: beholding heaven and feeling hell." - George A. Moore "There are times when we get hijacked by our emotions.  We stop thinking, we’re carried away by feelings and, after that critical moment, we do not remember very well what we did or why." - Jennifer Delgado #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

“A lot of people who have experienced trauma at the hands of people they’ve trusted take responsibility, and that is what’s toxic.” – Hannah Gadsby #leadersarentbullies #stepup #healthyworkplaces  #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct #Trauma at work triggers avoidance. Employees circumvent locations, tasks, and people associated with memories of abusive and bullying events. This creates a toxic work environment, opposed to the healthy and productive workplace executives claim to covet.

Sometimes, the healthiest move involves sacrificing good workplace relationships to leave a toxic culture or boss. "There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict. Walk away from these people. The battle they're are fighting isn't with you, it's with themselves." - Rashida Rowe #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct  

“If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.” – Buddha #leadersarentbullies #stepup #healthyworkplaces  #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct Studies show nearly 25% of workplace bullying bystanders and witnesses suffer from anxiety, clinical depression, of other PTSD-like symptoms.

 

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” — Elie Wiesel #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

"Even the smallest act of caring for another person is like a drop of water -it will make ripples throughout the entire pond.” – Jessy and Bryan Matteo #leadersarentbullies #stepup #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct Bystander coworker guilt is rooted in their shame of inaction. Unresponsive coworkers also report experiencing a sense of worthlessness when not helping and empathizing with a bullied associate. #workplaceculture

  "Fear is the only true enemy, born of ignorance and the parent of anger and hate." - Edward Albert "The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance." - Samuel Butler #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct  

 “Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.” ― Peter A. Levine “What we change inwardly will change outer reality.” – Plutarch #leadersarentbullies #stepup #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct Fear of abuse and bullying at work is analogous to putting sand in an engine. It immobilizes and freezes targets and bystanders. Too afraid to act, they are less productive. Poor production is the opposite outcome bullies claim to demand, profess, and covet.

4th of July Parade Trivia! What's the purpose of this machinery? Free related prize to the first person with the correct response. 

"The predator wants your silence. It feeds their power, entitlement, and they want it to feed your shame." - Viola Davis "Bullies are always cowards at heart and may be credited with a pretty safe instinct in scenting their prey." - Anna Julia Cooper #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct  

 "Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on." - Thurgood Marshall "There is strength in numbers. The more people you can rally to your cause, the better." - Mark Shields #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct People who don't intervene with bullying at work are afraid. They fear being the next target or not helping correctly and botching it. They fear being the only ones to act. They fear retaliation and retribution by the bully or their employer. They fear  losing their livlihood.

"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on." - Thurgood Marshall "There is strength in numbers. The more people you can rally to your cause, the better." - Mark Shields #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct People who don't intervene with bullying at work are afraid. They fear being the next target or not helping correctly and botching it. They fear being the only ones to act. They fear retaliation and retribution by the bully or their employer. They fear  losing their livlihood.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” — Dr Martin Luther King “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct According to a WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, only about 13 % of coworkers collaborate to rally around and to protect the target.  They confront the bully and report the bully’s abusive behaviors to the employer or authorities.  74% of workers witness bullying at work.

"I have yet to find the (person), however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism." - Charles Schwab #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct