Insight: Why We Are Less Self-Aware Than We Think—and What to Do About It

by Tasha Eurich

While all the techniques I’ve mentioned above will also work with the Aware Don’t Care, there is another that’s particularly well-suited for them. I came up with the laugh track when I worked for an Aware Don’t Care boss many years ago. After a series of public humiliations, including being reamed out for a relatively small mistake in front of our entire leadership team, I was at the end of my rope. I figured I had two choices: I could quit, or I could find a better way to deal with my manager. Because I adored every other aspect of my job, I decided to try the latter. One day, after a particularly unpleasant encounter with said boss, I happened to recall my favorite TV show growing up, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mary’s boss was a surly man named Lou Grant, played by the incomparable Ed Asner. On a good day, Lou Grant was grumpy and hotheaded; on a bad day, he was nasty and downright abusive. But because his outrageous comments were often followed by a canned laugh track, to the viewer, they seemed comical