For most of human history and in almost all places it would have seemed absurd for employers to give their employees personal feedback.

Things have changed today because the tasks of business are more psychologically complex than in the past. There’s been an entirely practical realization that to get the best performance, people need to be psychologically in a good place: which means well-motivated, in good spirits, even enthusiastic and eager around the tasks they are doing. This is the only way not to waste a lot of money.

Even if they don’t especially like it, the senior management needs to take the mental well-being of the employee very seriously. We have moved from the era of physical management to that of psychological management

The task might be to get a sales force to believe in the merits of a new product, so they can sell it wholeheartedly; to get an IT manager to be more creative in the way they interact with other sectors of the business. For all these kinds of tasks, it becomes crucial to get the employee into the right frame of mind.