Benjamin Laker Leaders who demonstrate high emotional intelligence (EI) are often praised for their ability to empathize, communicate, and navigate complex interpersonal dynamics. But like any powerful tool, emotional intelligence can be misused. While EI can foster trust, collaboration, and a positive work environment, it can also be weaponized to manipulate, control, and exploit teams. When wielded by the wrong hands, emotional intelligence turns toxic, creating an environment where manipulation masquerades as care and control hides behind the guise of connection. The question is: how do you tell the difference between authentic leadership and emotional exploitation? Emotional Intelligence as a…

Mark Travers Mental models are cognitive frameworks or representations that help individuals understand and interpret the world around them. They are the mental shortcuts or simplified versions of reality that people use to process information, make decisions and solve problems. Mental models influence how we perceive situations, predict outcomes and decide on courses of action. Here are two essential mental models for making intelligent decisions and how to use them effectively. 1. Probabilistic Thinking Probabilistic thinking is a mental model that involves making decisions based on the likelihood of various outcomes rather than certainty. Instead of thinking in absolute terms…

Without a doubt, Moses is definitely one of the Old Testament Bible's most well-known characters. He's connected to a whole load of prominent, often-cited biblical events like defying Pharoah Ramses II, leading the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, parting the Red Sea, retrieving the Ten Commandments, and was played by a grandly-bearded Charlton Heston in that old film epic of the same name, 1956's "The Ten Commandments." Folks with a bit more biblical knowledge might remember his retrieval from a basket in a river as a baby, or an incident like the one when a staff transformed into a…

We recently shared a Reddit thread about where people's former childhood bullies ended up later in life. This prompted BuzzFeed Community users to tell us about what happened to their former school bullies once they became adults. The stories were pretty interesting. Here's what people shared: 1. "I was bullied throughout school, all the way from elementary through high school. One particular bully called my parents one day out of the blue, apologizing for what he'd done. It turns out he went into the military, and I guess getting bullied during training made him realize what an a-hole he was.…