The Favor Trap

Someone helped you get there — and now that fact is quietly steering a decision it has no business making.

This episode opens with a real scenario: a first-time manager who knows exactly who should get the promotion, but can't stop feeling like she owes the other person. That word — owe — is where the trap lives. We break down what's actually happening in your brain when past favors start distorting present calls, why the Ben Franklin Effect binds both sides of the exchange, and why promoting someone out of guilt is actually the worst way to honor what they gave you. Then we get practical: two moves to separate the debt from the decision, and three lines you can say out loud when the conversation gets hard.