Tiziana Casciaro, a professor at the Rotman School of Management, specializes in power dynamics and organizational behavior. In this engaging conversation, she discusses why leaders often struggle to understand their team's true desires, highlighting that employees frequently lack self-awareness. The power of trust, fostered by familiarity and similarity, is emphasized as key to building effective relationships. Tiziana shares strategies for leaders to uncover deeper motivations and enhance engagement, ultimately fostering a more inclusive workplace.
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insights INSIGHT
Understanding Employee Values
Understanding what people want is crucial for effective leadership, as it allows leaders to motivate their teams towards shared goals.
Employees are more likely to invest their energy in goals they find valuable.
insights INSIGHT
Fundamental Human Needs
Individuals are driven by two fundamental needs: safety and self-esteem.
Leaders should consider these needs when trying to understand what motivates their team members.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Resources for Motivation
Recognize that people seek resources like material possessions, achievement, affiliation, autonomy, and a sense of morality to fulfill their needs.
Offer opportunities that cater to these diverse needs to improve motivation and engagement.
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Power, for All demystifies the concept of power, showing it as the ability to influence others through access to valued resources. The book provides strategies for agitating, innovating, and orchestrating change, helping individuals challenge established structures and create lasting impact. Through case studies and storytelling, it explores how power can be used positively to improve lives.
Tiziana Casciaro: Power, for All
Tiziana Casciaro is a professor of organizational behavior at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto. Her research on interpersonal and organizational networks and power dynamics has received distinguished scientific achievement awards from the Academy of Management and has been covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, and many other outlets.
Tiziana advises organizations and professionals across industries and has been recognized by Thinkers50 as a management thinker most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led. She is the author with Julie Battilana of Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It's Everyone's Business*.
In this conversation, Tiziana and I explore the reality that many leaders face: the desire to discover what people want — but the challenge of actually determining this. Even when intentions are good, employees may not have the self-awareness to articulate what they what. We detail what the research shows us about what most people care about — and the practical steps we can all take in our organizations to surface this through familiarity and similarity.
Key Points
To be powerful in a relationship, it means having control over resources the other person values.
Even if asked, people don’t always tell you what they need — either because they don’t trust you or because they aren’t self-aware.
Much of the research literature concludes that almost all people have two basic needs: safety and self-esteem.
To discover what people want, you need to earn trust. Competence and warmth two ways this happens. When forced to choose between the two, most people prefer warmth.
To build warmth (and trust) use two key sources of interpersonal liking: familiarity and similarity.
The six resources that address our basic needs of safety and self-esteem:
Material resources
Morality
Achievement
Status
Autonomy
Affiliation
Resources Mentioned
Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It's Everyone's Business* by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro
Power, for All website
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes
Three Steps to Great Career Conversations, with Russ Laraway (episode 370)
How to Use Power Responsibly, with Vanessa Bohns (episode 551)
How to Reduce Burnout, with Jennifer Moss (episode 561)
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