Matt Paknis Leadership Development

  Below please find Toray vs. Paknis timeline update XII, dated 8-31-24, explaining why Toray Plastics America (TPA) and Toray International America (TIA) sued me in December 2018 and threatened my publisher with a lawsuit in June of 2019. In their suit, TPA lied and claimed a common reader could identify TPA in my book.  They threatened my publisher who then signed over the rights of the book to me and stopped publishing, printing, distributing, marketing, and selling my book, Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies, released September, 2018. Their suit also scared away publishers.  The book is legal and tight.  It was reviewed by four (4) separate editorial teams to make it sue proof.  Thanks to the US Presidential election and an avalanche of workplace abuse cases, timing and demand is ripe to rerelease this book, seventy one (71) months after Simon & Schuster first released it.  March 2023:  Fifty one (51) months after filing and after an unusual num...

  "Management success requires learning as fast as the world is changing." -Warren Bennis "How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything - for better or for worse." -Simon Sinek "Management: arranging and telling. Leadership: nurturing and enhancing." -Tom Peters #endbullying #BeTransparent #StepUp #metoo #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact Workplace bullying in global organizations occurs for several reasons: increased worker diversity, increased dispersion of employees to distant geographic locations, lack of management experience in new markets, and management needing more advanced skills.

"We're not going to have the America that we want until we elect leaders who are going to tell the truth - not most days, but every day." - Ann Richards "We hold these truths to be self-evident, all people are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  If any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is their right and duty to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." - Thomas Jefferson

"When the norm is decency, other virtues can thrive: integrity, honesty, compassion, kindness, and trust." - Raja Krishnamoorthi "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold." - Leo Tolstoy #endbullying #BeTransparent #StepUp #metoo #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

Below please find timeline update XI, dated 8-27-24, explaining why Toray Plastics America (TPA) and Toray International America (TIA) attempted to harm me by suing me in December 2018 and by threatening my publisher.  This stopped my book's publishing, printing, distribution, marketing, and sales.  The publisher signed over the rights of the book to me.   I now need a publisher to print and redistribute my timely and in demand book.  Single available used copies are selling for over $80 on Amazon and for over $120 on EBay.   In their suit, TPA falsely claimed a common reader could identify TPA in my book, Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies, released September, 2018. March 2023:  Fifty one (51) months after filing and after an unusual amount of judicial delays, Toray dismissed the case, with prejudice, and paid my legal fees, basically acknowledging their lawsuit was frivolous. I signed nothing.   However, Toray's interfering with, and th...

"In a time of domestic crisis, (people) of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics." - John F. Kennedy "Profitability comes from loyalty, productivity, and having a character base from which to work." - Zig Ziglar #endbullying #stepup #metoo #BeTransparent #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct Bullying undermines retention, productivity, goodwill, morale, and innovation.

  In my thirty (30) year long global management development facilitation and consulting career, including twelve years of designing and delivering Brown University's, public, fifty (50) hour long "Practice of Management Certificate Program," female participants, more often than males, asked classmates whether they preferred reporting to a female or male boss. One hundred (100) percent of the time, the woman posing the question volunteered she'd choose, in all circumstances, a male boss. The questioner usually had a vitriolic experience with a female boss.  This intrigued me because one of the best leaders or managers I've known was my mom.    She died in 1979 of stage IV melanoma when she was forty four (44) and I was seventeen (17) and co-captain of the Madison Football Dodgers, NJ's top ranked high school football team.  When she died, many of my friends and classmates had no idea she was ill.  She received her early death sentence in 1971, and u...

"Always do what you are afraid to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "The purpose of whistleblowing is to expose secret and wrongful acts by those in power in order to enable reform." - Glenn Greenwald "There is always strength in numbers. The more individuals or organizations that you can rally to your cause, the better." - Mark Shields #endbullying #BeTransparent #stepup #metoo #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

Below please find timeline update X, dated 8-23-24, explaining why Toray Plastics America (TPA) and Toray International America (TIA) attempted to harm me by suing me in December 2018 and by threatening my publisher. This stopped my book's publishing, printing, distribution, marketing, and sales.   In their suit, TPA falsely claimed a common reader could identify TPA in my book, Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies, released September, 2018. March 2023:  Fifty one (51) months after filing and after an unusual amount of judicial delays, Toray dismissed the case, with prejudice, and paid my legal fees, basically acknowledging their lawsuit was frivolous. I signed nothing.   However, Toray's interfering with, and threatening, my publisher in June 2019 stopped my book's printing, publicity, and sales momentum.  Toray violated my rights to free speech and interfered with my contracts.   2005:  Another one of my client's employees was hired by TPA and...

"Power is no blessing in itself, except when used to protect the innocent." - Jonathan Swift "Respond intelligently even to unintelligent (bullying) treatment." - Lao Tzu #endbullying #betransparent #stepup #metoo #leadersarentbullies #healthyworkenvironments #metoomovement #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #happiness Healthy environments and strong leaders establish anti-bullying policies to protect workers. They take reports of maltreatment seriously and address & correct demeaning behaviors. Bad companies allow bullying to fester, stating the behavior is not illegal.

"All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose." - Brian Tracy "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." - Henry Ford "A leader is best when people barely know they exist, when their work is done, their aim fulfilled, people will say: we did it ourselves." - Lao Tzu Can Harris or Trump better empower everyone to work together towards an ideal future?

"To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace." -Doug Conant "Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer." -Peter Drucker “People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” – Pamela Stroko #endbullying #BeTransparent #metoo #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact #STEPup

Below please find segment IX, dated 8-19-24, explaining the truth about why Toray Plastics America (TPA) sued me in December 2018 when they falsely claimed a common reader could identify TPA in my book, Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies, released September,  2018. Fifty one (51) months after filing, Toray dismissed the case, with prejudice, and paid my legal fees, basically acknowledging their lawsuit was frivolous. I signed nothing.   However, Toray's interfering with, and threatening, my publisher in June 2019 stopped my book's printing and distribution and they signed over the book rights to me.  In May of 2017, six (6) months after being hired full time by Toray Plastics America, a person reporting to my plant's bullying manager was terminated, for not following orders to bully.   After this termination, another employee visited my office claiming executives believed the terminated worker might return to TPA with a gun.   These same executives...

“At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.” - Aristotle “Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by (those) who (have) care of the community.” - Thomas Aquinas #endbullying #BeTransparent #metoo #stepup   #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact Federal anti-bullying laws and support can determine how an organization prevents and stops bullying. They influence whether a bullying target can expect legal support and protection.

Successful leaders are tough, but they are not bullies.  "Toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love." - Vince Lombardi The toughest, and most successful, leaders do everything in their power to help their people excel. They create environments where the people they influence push and support each other to accomplish more than they thought possible.  I played NJ high school football for Head Coach Ted Monica,  a friend and disciple of Vince Lombardi.  Our three (3) year varsity  record, 33-0-0, was a reflection of his love of the game and for his players. He demonstrated the spartan traits Lombardi described above. These traits influenced us off the field, like during my senior, 1979, season when, in a three day stretch, my mom was buried, we won a state playoff game, and we took the SATs. This led me to being recruited and admitted to some of the best universities in the world, outcomes ...

"Trauma fractures comprehension as a pebble shatters a windshield. The wound at the site of impact spreads across the field of vision, obscuring reality and challenging belief." - Jane Leavy "The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect." - Peter A. Levine #endbullying #BeTransparent #stepup #metoo #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact

Below please find segment VIII, dated 8-15-24, explaining the truth about why Toray Plastics America (TPA) sued me in December 2018 when they falsely claimed a common reader could identify TPA in my book, Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies, released September of 2018. Fifty one (51) months after filing, Toray dismissed the case, with prejudice, and paid my legal fees, basically acknowledging their lawsuit was frivolous. I signed nothing.   Also during this time, Federal and RI State lawmakers found Non Disclosure Agreement Laws unjust and unenforceable.  This allows me to share the truth about Toray and the case.  However, TPA's intended damage was achieved, at least in the short term.  The printing and distribution of "Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies" was stopped and iced after Toray threatened my publisher.   TPA terminated me in September 2017 in retaliation for sharing my TPA shooting threat investigation with a Japanese Toray Expat who requested ...

"The way management treats associates is how associates will treat the customers." - Sam Walton "Treat others as you want to be treated." - Lou Holtz "The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure." - John C. Maxwell #endbullying #BeTransparent #stepup #metoo #leadersarentbullies #metoomovement   #healthyworkenvironments #happiness #leaderselevatethoughtandconduct #psychologicalsafetyatworkact A supervisor’s leadership style plays an important yet complex role in determining whether bullying is perceived as a workplace problem.

Last week, I was enjoying the summer setting sun at a local beach when my former lifeguard trained eyes were drawn to the water. There I witnessed selfless and heroic behaviors, competencies the American Public used to esteem and select in presidential candidates. It was heartwarming watching a father playing in the ocean with his young daughter. I could relate as I spent hours in the water playing with my children. My oldest daughter is expecting our first grandchild in a month. With so much self-absorbed promotion in the world today, the strong and humble behaviors I observed next affirm there's still goodness among us.  The next time I gazed at the water, the young daughter was with her mom and the dad was pulling what I thought was a struggling golden retriever from the water.  Upon closer look, I realized it was a person who appeared limp, or expired. I will never forget this dad carrying to shore this fortunate person. There were only four people in this loc...