Peter Schein is co-author of the worldwide bestseller, Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. Together with his father Edgar Schein, one of the founders of organizational psychology, Peter has co-written six books, including Humble Leadership and Career Anchors Reimagined.

Peter holds degrees from Stanford, Northwestern and USC.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Humble Inquiry is a philosophy about how to get along, gather information, and build relationships. The key is to ask people questions we don’t know the answer to.
• If we tell people what to do, or guide them with questions we already know the answer to, we are telling them that we know best. But by asking people questions we don’t know the answer to, we communicate genuine curiosity while also gathering information that we don’t currently possess.
• Remember to ask people questions that we don’t know the answer to.

Dorie Clark is an executive education professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School, and is the bestselling author of several books, including The Long Game and Stand Out. A frequent Harvard Business Review contributor, she has consulted for leading organizations including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank. Dorie is former presidential campaign spokeswoman, an award-winning journalist, and a four-time Thinkers50 honoree who was named the world’s top communication coach by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards.

Dorie holds degrees from Smith College and Harvard Divinity School.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• While Dorie was working grueling hours on the campaign trail for low pay, her boss was earning 10 times her monthly salary in one hour speeches—and that sparked Dorie’s curiosity. She realized that the massive pay difference came down to scale.
• Even if Broadway actors are just as talented as Hollywood actors, the Hollywood actors reach millions more people, thus commanding a premium.
• Dorie also saw that her boss had earned trust of other high status people who vouched for him. By building up social proof through brand affiliations, media appearances, and content creation, we make it easier for people to trust us. And we can also increase our scale.

Mike Baer is an award-winning business professor at Arizona State University, where he researches trust, justice, and impression management. Mike has published his research in top academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology, and Mike is currently the Editor-in-Chief at one of the field's top journals—Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Mike’s research has been covered by media outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, PBS, NPR, Business Insider, Men's Health, and New York Magazine among others.

Prior to joining academia, Mike worked in the construction industry, at Hewlett Packard's Executive Leadership Development group, and in publishing and online education. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from BYU, and his PHD from the University of Georgia. In this episode we discuss the following:

• Trust is both a gift and a burden. When we trust others, we can increase their pride and opportunities but can also overload them with responsibilities and pressure.
• Leaders routinely overload their most trusted people without taking anything off their plates, while under-investing in newer employees who could grow with smaller tasks.
• Trust shapes how we interpret behavior: trusted employees get the benefit of the doubt; less-trusted ones receive harsh judgments for the same mistakes, which can make early impressions disproportionately powerful.
• When people are forming those early impressions and deciding whether to trust us, they are thinking about three things: Are we competent? Do we care about them? Do we have good values? So if we do our job well and help other people without being asked, we will tend to make a good impression.
• About 25% of employees don’t actually want more trust—they want stability, not responsibility.