The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.
—Chinese proverb

Your success—and the success of your business—is divided by fuckery. What's fuckery? Habits that damage trust.

Fuckery is an ugly word, offensive, even. As it should be. Dysfunctional office behavior is ugly and offensive. It causes lost productivity, disables effective communication, punishes good workers and rewards bad ones. No industry is immune from it. You'll find fuckery anywhere you find people.

There's no quick-fix, but with the right tools and guidance, you can create a culture of trust and belonging.

Why work with radius?

1. You care about the culture and value of your company.

2. You believe trust is connected to business results.

3. You want to improve collaboration and accountability.

4. You prioritize learning and professional development.

Radius pairs nicely with companies that value a sense of humor, fresh ideas, storytelling, and people.

Curious? We offer individual and team coaching services, workshops, and presentations. During COVID, all services are available remotely.

“Thanks to the authors for straight-out naming the common workplace culture that robs people of their potential. And more thanks, for making concrete suggestions on how to build an organization that thrives. I highly recommend this book.” —AMAZON REVIEW

GET THE BOOK

ANALYSIS PARALYSIS 

Good intentions often accompany this form of fuckery. Worrying about disappointing others stalls action, and fear of failure becomes paralyzing. Perfectionism, Regret, and People-Pleasing are common causes. Performance and accountability suffer when these leaders won’t make a decision. Analysis Paralysis leaves your ship rudderless. The resulting confusion is a disaster for business.

AVOIDING CONFLICT

It might be as simple as not saying what you think, or hiding bad news or information. Some of us are unwilling to confront colleagues directly. Culture, gender, and race are key factors, too. Conflict Avoidance also shows up as Intellectualizing, Making Excuses, or literally Hiding in a Cubicle (or remote office). We’ll go to great lengths and get super creative to manage our anxiety and avoid a potentially painful experience.

BLAMING

Blaming is about a lack of accountability on the part of the person assigning fault. It’s easier to shift blame than it is to solve complicated problems. You can blame sales for not managing the customer. Marketing failed to define a resolution plan, so let’s make it their fault. You can blame engineering because, well, everybody blames engineering. Bottom line, though, is that your organization and your deliverable are your responsibility. Blame doesn’t solve problems, accountability does.

How to Build Trust

THE TLDR / CLIFFNOTES GUIDE

There are no shortcuts to rebuilding trust once damage has occurred. It’s a process that begins with rigorous self-awareness and radical accountability. Fuckery guides you through each of the steps:

1. Acknowledge fuckery as the enemy

2. Visualize fuckery

3. Equip yourself to fight it

4. Recognize that fuckery divides success

5. Fix your own fuckery

6. Fix the team’s fuckery

7. Fix the organization’s fuckery

8. Repeat steps 2–7
   
   

NAME IT TO TAME IT

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Whether you’re reading the book or booking a workshop, you’ll learn to spot fuckery in the mirror and in your office. Find and replace bad habits with skills that amplify engagement, collaboration, and accountability. By rooting out what threatens success, you'll replace toxicity with a culture of belonging.

All Radius services integrate interpersonal neurobiology, emotional intelligence, and clinical research to teach the self-awareness and communication tools you need to be successful.

GET IN TOUCH TO FIND OUT HOW RADIUS CAN SUPPORT YOUR GROWTH

Matrices

swords

The deck

Fuckery offers a guided approach to identifying, mapping, and reducing trust-damaging habits.

With over forty years of leadership and coaching between them, authors Lori Eberly and Jonathan Sabol have developed teams at tech start-ups, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies around the world.

Together, they challenge leaders to break habits that damage teams and results. Equal parts playful and provocative, Fuckery balances firsthand experiences with exercises and original matrices.

About The Authors

LORI EBERLY, LCSW

Lori, an executive coach and facilitator, has promoted emotional intelligence for two decades. Her first career was in hospice, where she learned the dangers of Avoiding Conflict, Micromanaging, and People-Pleasing. Today, as the founder of Radius ECD, she calibrates communication patterns and gets teams and leaders unstuck. Lori decimates fuckery at billion-dollar tech companies, healthcare organizations, and anywhere else people work together. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.

JONATHAN SABOL

Jon began his career as an engineer at General Motors before moving to Silicon Valley in the 1990s. His formative years were spent at Applied Materials during the tech boom, where he became general manager of the services division before running off to chase startup dreams. Jon has held executive positions in semiconductor, automation, and laser technology companies, which has given him an intimate understanding of fuckery. He lives in Santa Clara, California, with his family and their labradoodle.