Management Muse

Chasing happiness directly might be one of the worst ways to find it. In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin unpack why happiness is better understood as a byproduct than a destination. A lot of what shapes our happiness is either built into our baseline or fades faster than we expect. The part we can influence has less to do with perfect circumstances and more to do with how we think, what we protect, and where we put our attention. From Disney World meltdowns to late-life reinvention, Cindi and Geoff make the case for three things worth chasing instead: meaningful relationships, a sense of purpose, and a little novelty. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I’ll be happy when…,” this conversation offers a helpful reset: what are you building that happiness can come from? Episode Highlights: Why happiness is actually a byproduct of something else and the 3 things to chase instead The 50/10/40 equation: what the science says actually determines your happiness level What 85 years of Harvard research says about relationships and longevity Why retirement can be harder than many people expect The happiness “set point” and why people tend to bounce back to a baseline Social comparison traps and how to break them Watch This Episode on YouTube:  Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here.  → Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off. Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox: → Sign up for our newsletter and get a FREE chapter of The Uncertainty Playbook. Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading: Waldinger, Robert J., and Marc Schulz. The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness. Simon & Schuster, 2023. https://a.co/d/00Zx1PXg  Lyubomirsky, Sonja, Kennon M. Sheldon, and David Schkade. "Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change." Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 2005. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111 Schkade, David A., and Daniel Kahneman. "Does Living in California Make People Happy? A Focusing Illusion in Judgments of Life Satisfaction." Psychological Science, 9(5), 1998, pp. 340-346. https://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/biases/9_Psychological_Science_340_(Schkade).pdf  Adam Sandler “Same Sad You” SNL Skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbwlC2B-BIg  Join Our Community & Follow Us:  - Youtube Channel  - LinkedIn - Instagram -Facebook -TikTok - Website

What is more important: people or profits?  This week’s guest thinks that question is part of the problem. In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi sits down with longtime HR executive and author Clark Ingram to unpack the HR myths he's spent decades dismantling. From the false binary of "people vs. profits" to the idea that zero turnover is impossible (spoiler alert: it isn't), Clark makes the case that HR has been asking the wrong questions, chasing the wrong metrics, and settling for the wrong goals.  Drawing from his experience in manufacturing, healthcare, and hard-to-fill roles, Clark explains why employee turnover, compensation, recruiting, and workplace culture are all connected. He shares stories about fixing the real reasons people leave, designing pay systems employees can understand, and building an employer brand that reflects why people actually want to work there. This conversation is a practical look at what happens when HR focuses less on activity and more on results. Episode Highlights: Why "people first vs. profits first" is a false choice, and the third option that changes everything The organizational-specific root cause approach to cutting turnover Why engagement surveys are only as good as what you do after them The Walmart driver story: how understanding what workers really want beats every hiring bonus you'll ever offer Why compensation tied to time served is lazy, and what to measure instead The case for zero: why employee turnover should be held to the same standard as customer experience How to identify what actually makes your organization worth working for About Clark Ingram: Clark A. Ingram, is the Founder and President of People Profits, LLC - a financially focused Human Capital management consulting firm. We focus on Employee Turnover, Chronically Open Positions and Skills Gap. Over the next 30+ years he was the Chief Human Resources Officer for four companies, in four different industries from publicly to privately held.  Connect with Clark: Churn: Proven Strategies to Achieve Zero Turnover | Linkedin Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/75EtkifhfyY Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here.  → Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off. Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox: → Sign up for our newsletter and get a FREE chapter of The Uncertainty Playbook. Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading: Sull, Donald, Charles Sull, and Ben Zweig. "Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation." MIT Sloan Management Review, January 2022. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/  Mitchell, Terence R., Brooks C. Holtom, and Thomas W. Lee. "How to Keep Your Best Employees: Developing an Effective Retention Policy." Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 15, no. 4, 2001. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2001.5897929  Join Our Community & Follow Us:  - Youtube Channel  - LinkedIn - Instagram -Facebook -TikTok - Website

Money can buy happiness. There, we said it. But before you sprint toward a yacht, a five-star hotel, or a deeply unnecessary espresso machine, there’s some fine print. For years, the popular story was that money buys happiness only up to about $75,000. After that, more income supposedly stopped moving the happiness needle. But updated research on money, happiness, income, and well-being suggests the relationship is more nuanced. In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi and Geoffrey Tumlin unpack the newer findings and explore why the real question is not just, “Does money buy happiness?” but “How do you spend money in ways that actually improve your life?” It’s a smart, funny, science-backed guide to getting more happiness per dollar, with practical takeaways for anyone trying to spend better, stress less, and understand what money means for employee well-being. Episode Highlights Why the old money-happiness story was too simple What newer research reveals about income and well-being Four ways money can actually improve happiness How expectations shape satisfaction What managers should understand about money, stress, and employee well-being Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UHo5MdYok2A Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here.  → Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off. Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox: → Sign up for our newsletter and get a FREE chapter of The Uncertainty Playbook. Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading: Kahneman, Daniel, and Angus Deaton. “High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but Not Emotional Well-Being.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1011492107  Killingsworth, Matthew A., Daniel Kahneman, and Barbara Mellers. “Income and Emotional Well-Being: A Conflict Resolved.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120  Dunn, Elizabeth, and Michael Norton. Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. Simon & Schuster, 2013. https://a.co/d/0aK2M6pG  Osnos, Evan. “The Haves and Have-Yachts.” The New Yorker, Jul. 2022. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/the-haves-and-the-have-yachts  Join Our Community & Follow Us:  - Youtube Channel  - LinkedIn - Instagram -Facebook -TikTok - Website

A lot of managers want employees to go the extra mile, yet they treat the relationship like a transaction. That mismatch is where trust starts to crack. In this episode of Management Muse, Cindi Baldi talks with award-winning author Hanna Hasl-Kelchner about the workplace social contract: the unwritten agreement that determines whether employees lean in, pull back, or start polishing their résumés.  Hanna breaks down the five “speed bumps” that can block trust: approachability, recognition, bias, workload management, and conflict management.  From overlooked ideas to overloaded high performers, this conversation gives managers a practical way to spot where trust may be getting stuck, and a roadmap to get the relationship back on track. Episode Highlights What a workplace social contract really means Why employees stop going the extra mile The five trust speed bumps every manager needs to address The subtle cues that may hurt your approachability as a manager When recognition can backfire The boundaries needed to build fairness About Hanna Hasl-Kelchner: Hanna's a no-nonsense workplace fairness strategist and the award-winning author of 'Seeking Fairness at Work - Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction.' Her straight talk and practical tools have helped organizations from startups to S&P 500 companies tackle the messy realities beneath the surface of employee engagement and retention. Connect with Hanna: Linkedin | Facebook | Blue Sky | Youtube Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/09HooWAQ7vM Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here.  → Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off. Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox: → Sign up for our newsletter and get a FREE chapter of The Uncertainty Playbook. Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading: T. Kähkönen, et al., “Employee trust repair: A systematic review of 20 years of empirical research and future research directions,” Journal of Business Research, 130, 98-109 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.03.019  Rousseau, D.M. “Psychological and implied contracts in organizations,” Employ Respons Rights J 2, 121–139 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01384942  Join Our Community & Follow Us:  - Youtube Channel  - LinkedIn - Instagram -Facebook -TikTok - Website

Your coworker probably isn’t a narcissist. They may be stubborn. They may be self-important. But “narcissist” is a big word—and Cindi and Geoff think we’re throwing it around way too easily. In this episode of Management Muse, they challenge the way we talk about narcissism at work. Cindi and Geoff separate the clinical meaning of narcissism from the management research on narcissistic traits, where confidence, visibility, and bold action can sometimes help leaders rise. But the upside has a shadow. The same self-belief that helps a leader make a hard call can also make them resistant to feedback, blind to risk, and exhausting to follow. They explore the line between leadership confidence and dangerous certainty, why high-level leadership often requires tolerating loneliness, and why calling someone a narcissist can flatten a complicated workplace problem into a dead-end diagnosis. This episode is a smarter way to think about ego, power, conflict. Episode Highlights: Why your coworker probably is not a narcissist How narcissism differs in psychology and management research The link between CEOs and narcissistic traits When confidence becomes a feedback problem  The question to ask before declaring someone impossible Watch This Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/R5OTDD-QuPg Get your copy of The Uncertainty Playbook: 14 Strategies for Work Success in a Chaotic World here.  → Use code PLAYBOOK20 for 20% off. Get Science-Backed Insights and Exclusive Perks Straight to Your Inbox: → Sign up for our newsletter and get a FREE chapter of The Uncertainty Playbook: https://managementmuse.com/newsletter/ Want to Go Deeper? Check Out Our Recommended Reading: Chatterjee, Arijit, and Donald C. Hambrick. “It’s All about Me: Narcissistic Chief Executive Officers and Their Effects on Company Strategy and Performance.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 52 (3), 2007, pp. 351–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20109929 Join Our Community & Follow Us:  - Youtube Channel  - LinkedIn - Instagram -Facebook -TikTok - Website