Matt Paknis Leadership Development

"Ignorance is not too dangerous. If you combine it with power, then this is a toxic mix." - Yuval Noah Harari "The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect." - Peter A. Levine #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct  #Trauma fosters avoidance. Workers struggle to approach locations, tasks, or people who trigger traumatizing memories. Toxic environments are not  productive. How an employer responds to bullying reflects its character.  It's an ethical litmus test. Make sure to pass! #stepup

"If you look at history, innovation doesn't come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect." - Steven Johnson "This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect." - Dwight D. Eisenhower #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

"To help others, help yourself first. No one serves friends by grinding themselves into dust on the altar of compassion." - Seanan McGuire "Where you see wrong, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on." - Thurgood Marshall #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconflict #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct Shame of inaction causes coworker guilt. Coworker witnesses may also experience a sense of powerlessness for not helping or empathizing with a bullied associate. Close to 25% of bullying bystanders suffer from anxiety, clinical depression, or other PTSD - like trauma symptoms.

"Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent." - Jonathan Swift "Cowards only threaten when they are safe." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Predators never expect to be hunted." - Kit Rose #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

Toray Plastics America sued me in December, 2018, three months after my book was released. "Delay in justice is injustice." - Walter Savage Landor "A lawsuit can be a weapon." - Bari Weiss A lawsuit can be a weapon. Share this Quote Bari Weiss Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/lawsuit-quotes A lawsuit can be a weapon. Share this Quote Bari Weiss Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/lawsuit-quotes North Kingstown, RI’s Toray Plastics, which is suing a former employee over a book he wrote, ‘Successful Leaders Aren’t Bullies’ By:  Eric T. Berkman   August 26, 2022 A U.S. District Court judge has found that a company could bring nondisparagement and defamation claims against a former employee who wrote a book on workplace bullying even though the book never referenced the employer by name. Defendant Matthew Paknis, a veteran management and leadership consultant who briefly worked in the HR department of Toray Plastics, authored a ...

"Kindness in words creates confidence." - Lao Tzu "The secret of life is to have no fear; it's the only way to function." - Stokely Carmichael "Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open." - Thomas Dewar #healthyworkplaces #stepup #leaderselevatethoughtandconflict Fear is like putting sand in an engine. It immobilizes and freezes bystanders. Too afraid to act, they are less productive, and poor production is the opposite outcome bullies claim to demand, profess, and covet. #LeadersArentBullies

"Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable." - Denis Waitley "I don't think you can be good in life without acknowledging the part of you that isn't good." - Jeff Tweedy #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when (adults) are afraid of the light." - Plato "The fearful are caught as often as the bold." - Helen Keller "Do what you fear and fear disappears." -David Joseph Schwartz #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #DignityAtWorkAct #stepup People who fail to intervene are afraid. They fear being the next target. They fear they might not help correctly and botch it. They fear to be the only ones to act. They fear retaliation and retribution by the bully or their employer. They fear losing their jobs and income.

"I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." - Abraham Lincoln "Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light." - George Washington #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

  Your bday wishes are most appreciated! Today, I wish for you to please consider  comforting/protecting those you witness, or suspect are, being bullied. 75% of US are aware of work/school place abuse, yet only 13% respond. Wherever and however possible, let's change this! Bullies are cowards.  "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." -Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you! #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct Coworkers collaborate and rally around their bullied coworker by confronting the bully and reporting the bully’s abusive behaviors to their employer or authorities in about 13% of workplace bullying cases according to a 2014 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey. #stepup

"When you abuse someone, you limit their perspective, and you trap them in your view of them or your view of the world." - Tara Westover "No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change." - Barbara De Angelis #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityAtWorkAct

"The beatings will continue until morale improves."- Captain Bligh of the Bounty #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkplaces  #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #stepup #DignityatWorkAct Short-term gains can mislead bullies into believing their negative behavior motivates people to improve performance. Bullies don’t realize their abuse impacts turnover, absenteeism, vandalism, violence, lost productivity, ill will, toxicity, failed long term outcomes (& mutiny).

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” - John Dalberg-Acton “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” – Leonardo da Vinci North Kingstown, RI’s Toray Plastics, which is suing a former employee over a book he wrote, ‘Successful Leaders Aren’t Bullies’ By:  Eric T. Berkman   August 26, 2022 A U.S. District Court judge has found that a company could bring nondisparagement and defamation claims against a former employee who wrote a book on workplace bullying even though the book never referenced the employer by name. Defendant Matthew Paknis, a veteran management and leadership consultant who briefly worked in the HR department of Toray Plastics, authored a book entitled “Successful Leaders Aren’t Bullies.”  During a dispute following Paknis’ departure, Toray learned about the book, which had not yet gone to print, and had Paknis sign an agreement that he would make no derogatory oral or written statements about the global ma...