You Won't Get Far by Walking on Eggshells

In organizations today, too many people are walking around on eggshells. Their actions are constrained by fear: fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of doing the wrong thing, fear of being accused, labeled, or harassed. At the same time, organizations are asking more and more of people, requiring that they put in long hours working at a stressful pace and demanding higher and higher performance. “Walking on eggshells,” however, inhibits the ability to achieve this higher performance. To be higher-performing, members of organizations must be able to form effective partnerships and with people quite different from themselves in terms of function, organizational level, race, sexual orientation, nationality, language, gender, or other dimensions of identity. The ability to partner across differences is a critical skill for organizational and individual success. Walking on eggshells discourages effective partnering. It is a manifestation of an invisible boundary, or line, that no one w...