Do You Have a Positive Strategy for Gaslighting? with Dr. Robin Stern

Apr 23, 2021

Dr. Robin Stern, co-founder of the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, discusses gaslighting in the workplace. She explains what gaslighting is, provides examples of its impact, and shares positive strategies to address it. Gaslighting chips away confidence, and she highlights signs to look out for and motivations behind gaslighting.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Gaslighting Defined

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation and psychological abuse, often involving a power dynamic.
The gaslighter aims to make their target question their own perceptions and sanity.

ANECDOTE

Dismissed Concerns

An employee felt left out and passed over for promotions, expressing concerns to her boss.
He dismissed her feelings as sensitivity, leading her to self-doubt instead of addressing the issue.

ANECDOTE

The Hand Signal

A woman's colleague manipulated her with a "self-improvement plan," controlling her speech in meetings.
This led to the colleague taking credit for her work and receiving a promotion, highlighting the insidious nature of gaslighting.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Dr. Robin Stern is the co-founder and associate director for the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence and an associate research scientist at the Child Study Centre at Yale. She is a licensed psychoanalyst with 30 years of experience treating individuals, couples, and families, and also does consulting work with schools both nationally and across the globe, as well as with large corporations, including Facebook and Google on best practice, practices for integrating the principles of emotional intelligence into training, outreach, and product design.

In this week’s podcast, we explore what gaslighting is, how it can play out in our workplaces, and positive strategies we can employ when faced with it.

Connect with Dr. Robin Stern:

https://robinstern.com/

You’ll Learn:

[02:23] - Robin shares with us what gaslighting is.
[04:01] - Robin shares what gaslighting can look like at work.
[06:04] - Robin shares an example of gaslighting at work.
[09:49] - Robin shares the impact gaslighting has on people in the workplace.
[11:05] - Robin explains how gaslighting is something that builds up over time and chips away at your confidence.
[13:01] - Robin shares how we’re not born gaslighters and that this is something we learn.
[14:05] - Robin shares what motivates a person to gaslight another.
[16:59] - Robin shares the signs you’re experiencing gaslighting.
[19:72] - Robin shares positive strategies to use when experiencing gaslighting.
[21:40] - Robin shares preemptive strategies for tackling gaslighting.
[26:55] - Robin enters the lightning round.

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you, Robin!