Robert Capodieci- Behavior-Driven Leadership & Resilient Teams

Welcome back to The Behavioral Profit, the show

where we unpack the human behaviors that turn

strategy into measurable growth. I'm your host,

Debbie Longo, executive behavioral coach. Each

week, we unpack the mindsets, habits, and cultural

shifts that turn teams into higher profit -driven

powerhouses. So you can lead with purpose and

win with people. Today, I'm joined by Robert

Caffedetti, executive with over 34 years of deep

tech leadership in software development. blockchain,

AI, and decentralized systems. He currently heads

technology at SlimFi while advising global organizations

against blockchain strategies. Previously, he

scaled Blockchain Zoo to 60 team members in under

a year, pioneered blockchain -based document

systems, and even consulted law enforcement agencies

on intelligent technology. What sets Robert apart

isn't just his tech, technique, his belief, transparent,

trust -centered behavior is the real engine of

innovation. From weekly open demos to leadership

vulnerability rituals, he's proved that consistent

action not titles, shape, culture, and performance.

Welcome to the show, Robert. Thank you very much

for having me on your show. What I would like

to say that practical experience is what teach

you most beside the theory of things and having

run companies in three different continents and

a different culture. You understand how to manage

the people you work with in the best way. Mostly

when the line of business is not the place where

the big investment is a big machinery and you

have Homer Simpson pushing a button, but where

the product that you are selling to the client

in terms of services or finished product comes

from the intellect of people. So the engine of

the company is people. So that's why you're very

particular ability in keeping everybody functional

and working and motivated. Very nice. Thank you.

I like that. I have a few questions here. The

first question is how behavior -driven leadership

builds a centralized team. I come from a generation

where you go to the office every day and there

is not exception to it. To an age and a moment

where thanks also mostly to the Corona virus,

we have learned to work remotely for people that

work remotely. And it is something that comes

with a difficult understanding and approach to

this. There is a fantastic book, which is called

Remote. that start because we tend to look at

others and think what we can do to manage these

other people. But we should also look ourselves

in the mirror and say what decision I made that

probably bring me in failing and having a remote

team. And this book says if you work with a team

and you need to be there to monitor them and

manage them, then you have a kindergarten. You

hire the people that is not able to do this by

themselves in thermo ethics. And it's actually

true. There are remote teams that are tenfold

more efficient than the teams that meet up. the

office. Decentralizing the power of building

a solution, building an application from different

places when you get the right people is actually

a much more functional team than when everybody

has to commute and get to an office and being

locked inside the office for a certain amount

of hours per day. So I think that understanding

and hiring the right people are the two keys

that brings decentralized teams to be very efficient.

me, it's about the behavior and that's what's

going to produce the results. Whether it's increased

sales and profits or being nice to everybody

or treating everybody to lunch or making the

board members happy. Sometimes the behavior has

different effect with very different people as

a completely different outcomes. This is exactly

what I wanted to say. And I give you for granted

that the behavior in terms of management, direct

management is the correct one. But if you don't

have an interlocutor on the other. side that

appreciate, understand. Sometimes when we live

in countries where regulations are enforced by

law enforcement, by court, etc., people behave

in the same way that they are afraid to go to

hell if they are a believer of a certain thing,

and not because they have the ethics in themselves

that make them behave properly, because that's

the correct part in a relationship with somebody

that is paying you a salary, possibly. Or, you

know. In countries where the law is much more

important, I live in Indonesia. I cannot report

an employee for misbehavior, but there is nobody

even listening to me. It's just a ridiculous

situation. And here you have people that just

disappears with a company computer for one month

and then come back like nothing. The methodologies

of people and the behavior in having people feeling

compelled to be ethical and honest are much more

important and key compared to places where you

cannot do those. think that you have legal consequences.

The government and society controls a lot of

what we do, but the way that I teach it doesn't

have to affect you. I might have to follow the

rules and do what my boss says, be kind to people

and get along with my peers and neighbors or

whatever. But that doesn't have to affect me

in a negative way where that's all I think about.

And then every problem and everything's going

to become negative and what you were saying about

the employees they leave with the computer or

whatever even if their resources you don't have

the resources in the United States we have a

lot of but it doesn't even matter it helps to

have the resources and it's mainly for the company

if the person left or the person doesn't deal

with it then the person has ways out they could

go to another country they could change their

name change their identity believe it or not

people do this they'll try to do anything they

can to get away with whatever bad thing they

did. Those things help. In my experience, that's

for the company. So the company can say, we tried.

We did these things to try to help this person,

which is true. But if the person is not going

to seek the help. And they're not going to say,

I want to be honest. Then nobody's going to be

able to do anything. People could go to jail

and then they come out and they do it all over

again. So I think that in the whole algorithm

of configuration of a relationship between the

employees and manager ultimately is the person

that allow certain things to be. So the hiring

process is the key, the success failure of a

business. Obviously business exciting. You need

to have the psychological ability to understand

what. excites a person rather than not. For example,

in my field, strangely enough, the salary, very

limited power in keeping people happy because

they know they have enough to live, they don't

care, but they want to work on an exciting project

rather than a boring one, even for more money.

And there are many other aspects. Also the relationship

between employees, between colleagues and the

atmosphere of the company makes a big difference.

What is very funny to me is that I used to hire

a lot of fresh graduates. So university, mine

was the first work experience. They didn't understand

the difference it was between life inside the

company compared to the one that they end up

going to after maybe resigning for whatever reason

and moving out in their car. And many things

are for granted when you don't have a comparison

and many end up coming back saying, oh my God,

I can now spend one more day over there. That's

terrible. So it is, I think, very important.

For example, the last offices I opened. and quite

wide, quite big for not so many people. So each

have a lot of space. They have very different

ambience. People can work on the open air in

a certain context with no smoke or another place

for people that smoke. and the freedom to smoke

in a place because the law allows it here. In

many other countries, there is no way you cannot

do it. And there was a small restaurant for people

to get whatever they want when they're working.

Video games for them to take a break. Intellectual

productivity. You cannot force somebody to be

inspired and writing good code anytime. And the

whole thing was really welcoming and allowing

people to feel at home. So much that many people

wouldn't go back home. They just go into a small

room, have a sleep, and the next day are already

there because probably... Even at home, the place

wasn't pleasant enough like it would have been

at the office. These attract people, but that's

not enough because people can be attracted to

be there and then not being ethical in other

terms. In the relationship I found employed,

we're saving project with the file name that

belongs to a project we have, but in reality

we're working to completely different things

for other clients online. What is important is

to fix this thing immediately because if it's

not fixed, all the other people that realize

and understand this is going... on, they wonder

why they are behaving properly. The other people

is misbehaving and maybe bringing home twice

as much as the other people at the end of the

month and they go unpunished. So this is another

very important thing. There are many methods

to get the insight from the company. When you

are a CEO, you are a top manager, everybody's

mind to you. Nobody's going to tell you what

is actually happening. And it's very important

to have methods and things. There are plenty

of tricks that I learned in the years to achieve

things in an income. The next question is the

simple Listen, Mirror, Act framework of sharpening

emotional intelligence. Can you talk about that?

The fact that the work become more than just

a place to go work and live, but more of a family,

like where the moment the people care, somebody

come into work, have an accident with a motorcycle,

suddenly half of the company is empty because

they're at the hospital taking care of their

colleagues, something like this. And this also

is interesting in the political aspect. of where

the business is in a country like the one that

I am in or may probably work also in America

if there is a big city and a lot of people coming

from the countryside to work in the city. There

is a lot of people that don't have their family

with them there. So they rely a lot on the relationship

that they're used to having the support of the

family into the company. So the company has this

incredible role of taking over the aspect of

the family, mostly for freshly graduate like

I used to work with, also for people that are

more aged. They automatically take their own

role as a potential father, mother, so you have

the HR person that goes above the aspect of HR

or even the accounting lady that becomes like

the confident for other people. So there are

some dynamics that creates inside the whole team

that way above the simple. workplace. The emotional

intelligence part, how do you refer that to the

executive or the business owner? Depends also

the people that you have in that place. I work

in a large company as a consultant where the

company philosophy is removing the idea of human

resources because just terminology seems like

you are, when you talk about human resources,

this is just people working with you, not for

you in terms of creating something. There are

a lot of small subtle aspects that you don't

even need to communicate officially, that you

automatically feel when you enter a place where

people respected things understood and people

automatically feel like their behavior is one

of the value that mark them between their community.

So it doesn't matter who wrote the best code,

but it's also... other people's birthday and

honestly cheers them up at success. It is a cascade,

I think. Obviously, if the shareholders, the

board of directors, the top management don't

invest in this mentality, you become an enemy

if you create the So it could be about what everybody

else does and what's the norm that all the other

companies do. And we want to fall in line with

that because with a lot of companies, if they're

different or if they do things that are out of

the ordinary, then they could be seen as negative

when really they're doing positive things. wife

to complain about their husband, then the risk

is nearly whether she's totally in love with

her husband. If she doesn't talk bad about her

husband, she's kicked out of the group because

she doesn't comply with the methodology. If you

want the cancer to ruin governments because of

much corruption, much things, you enter as an

honest part of the system. You will become the

cancer for them and you are absolutely removed

from that. I think that it is an investment.

They need to start from the top to the bottom.

If a company needs to change completely, they

hire a consultant. like it could be you, in order

to refresh them all. I work in Singapore with

several large banks. We're talking 10 ,000 people

plus banks. And you will see the difference in

one where people try to destroy the peers in

order to go up and work together. And I was just

a consultant from outside, and I wanted to just

run away from those places. And there were others

where you feel loved so much that you want to

cry when they deal with you, they support, they

help. And I was looking inside. This is a huge

difference. Both of the places were successful.

But from the outside people even know those things

because you need them from the inside to see

them. But I wonder how many people in the first

bank will fall sick because of the workplace

atmosphere and behavior and how many others would

do the best for their company because they feel

it's a beautiful place. And for sure, a mentality

like this is not born just because randomly a

few higher people were positive. This is a...

A mentality that starts from the absolute top

and is shown to people, so even if somebody came

in grumpy, whatever, would eventually be... cured

if you want and then join the positive behavior.

Not an easy thing to do. It requires somebody

that has the ability to remove the bad apples

from the basket. This is the things that make

me suffer the most as a manager or owner of a

company, firing people. And I did fire people

that were very good at their job, but they were

very negative for the morale of the larger team

they were working on. But what can you do until

you explain it one, two, three times and people

still have this issue? There is not much you

can do. There was a person, a guy that was so

annoying that when I want somebody to resign,

I just put them to work with him in a matter

of a week. People were presenting the resignation.

In this country, if you fire somebody, you need

to give three months of salary, for example,

that would save me also that kind of money. A

little bit evil on my side, but to say that the

behavior and the personality of some people have

a huge effect on others. Next question is common

C -suite blind spots that quietly erode trust

and how to fix them. I think that There are some

people that would trick others into doing things

or believing things. It is most of the time for

a personal advantage and is actually the cause

of failure of the other people. Many people don't

even realize they are being manipulated in this.

When you create a team, you will have somebody

that has leadership in their blood. You don't

need to give a title to somebody to make them

leader. Some people are leaders on their own.

And if these people become leaders by charisma,

by charm, they are negative people. This is a

huge problem, because how they say lead, follow,

get out of the way. If they follow their negative

at the end, they're going to become even pretending

positive. For example, in managing communities.

We have a project now, we have about 17 ,000

users and most of these users were meeting up

in a Discord server. Some negative leaders came

up and started really dragging the community

and filling you with a lot of negative news or

fake news that made other people scared to talk.

So people that are there for good intent, afraid

to come out with something positive because they

will be immediately killed socially by those

negative leaders. The intervention has been trying

to talk with these people and change them. When

this failed, ban them from the community. The

community raised back up again in positive manner

because all the people that were afraid finally

can talk. So some people have a negative connotation

about them. And if they are born leaders, that's

a disaster. So this is a big thing. that you

mentioned because in a society, whether it's

a political or even just a family member or a

boss. If I want to control somebody, the object

is to create fear. And that is a very easy way

of controlling somebody because you have the

person under your wing. So now because the person

is so afraid of you and what you might do and

the things that you told them or whatever, now,

whatever you say, nine times out of 10, the person's

going to do. But here's the thing, whether it's

fear, distrust, all these things. I don't have

to think that this is gonna happen, even though...

the people, because you're also talking about

society, the workplace and stuff. Even if somebody's

trying to do that to me, that doesn't matter.

I don't have to be a part of that. And I can

tell myself, this is not happening. I will not

be fearful. I will not allow this person to make

me fearful, to control and manipulate me. But

if I give in and somebody creates the fear...

and I allow that person to control me and I absorb

the fear, then what's gonna happen after that

is now I lose my sense of being, right? I lose

myself. And now I'm not able to control anything.

And this is a big problem, especially here in

the United States. they use child labor, food

poisoned with something or whatever. And a lot

of people cannot think for themselves. They cannot

do the due research. Sometimes it can be true

as well. It's been said, but many times people

are too lazy to look into these things and they

just follow that. In our case, all the patrons

of a large chain restaurant that is all around

the country, because you find a channel to talk

to them, because you enter part of, I don't know,

the club, whatever, and you scare those clients

away. The management of the company need to intervene

and do something that is radical. in order to

stop these things from happening. The behavior

in the case of both the management, those spreading

FUD and the client that are absorbing this, you

cannot go talk one by one. The good things when

people are global enough to follow the negative.

They're going to be gullible enough to follow

the positive afterwards. So easy to fix an issue

in a certain way. Eventually they will because

people get sick and tired of being sick and tired

and they've destroyed practically everything

and they don't want to do it anymore. So the

last, a practical question you can ask today

to spark openness and ownership to your team.

Do you feel can put people in a little bit of

a spot in the corner? But the direction should

be this. So. your work appreciated enough. You

think somebody noticed the positive contribution

you have given in order to have a good feedback

on the morale of the people. Because being appreciated

for even the little things that you do saves

a marriage, saves a job, saves everything. Sometimes,

look, I did these things beautiful, nobody cares.

At the same time, I had a big appreciation for

what I did. Probably I'm gonna put myself even

more into this. I guess listening is a key. And

asking question of this kind is the key as well.

So that's the direction I would go and I did

go actually in the past. So that's three positive

environment, participating in a positive workplace

and therefore doing all of these things that

we just talked about. If you're listening to

this podcast, think about a problem you have

and think about anything that we said is the

action. By taking one of these actions, will

that help you? What if you do it? And then what

kind of result did you get from it? Is there

anything that you would like to say in closing?

That being a manager, being a leader, being a

CEO is not something that comes just with a title.

If the personality is correct, sometimes it's

very stressful and very lonely as well. Sometimes

people think I'm going to be the CEO. The true

things is not like a beautiful, pleasant place

to be, but for sure it gives satisfaction as

well. Some people are meant for it and some people

aren't. And I think that's... And also some people

are natural born leaders. Some people are just

followers. They just want to spend their life

following other people. And there's nothing wrong

with that. That's just the life that they chose.

A world where everybody want to be a leader and

nobody want to follow, collapse. You couldn't

function, so you need leaders and followers.

This is something that I think is important.

Easier to convert than negative. natural born

leader in a positive one, then having the luck

to find somebody already positive, honestly positive,

because faking positivity that is plain, honestly

positive. Like the military, they'll bring you

to the bottom and then they build you back up

in the way that they want you to be. But it's

a positive way. It's not a negative way. but

there are influencers, all different people,

that will bring you down and then build you back

up in a negative way. So I need to know what's

the difference between that. If I'm going to

allow somebody, they know what they're getting.

It doesn't require a lot of research. They can

do the research if they want, but they know what's

going to be the end result. If I go to a job

and I move up to a supervisor, so now the company

is training me the way that they want me to become,

because I have to function in their company.

I have to do what they say. I have to do their

job duties in order for me to be productive so

the company can increase. sales and profits and

survive and everybody gets a paycheck. Are they

doing it in a positive way or in a negative way?

Because there are a lot of companies that do

it in a negative way. They say negative things.

They put people down. They try to control and

manipulate. They take advantage of their employees,

but not all companies. A lot of companies do

things very positive. They have goals. They give

out prizes. They give money. They motivate people.

You want to have this. survival instinct that

we put together since we are little kids. So

what works positively for us, even if it's negative

things, in the past to make us succeed, try to

replicate that again and again, because it's

what we registered in our brain, a successful

methodology. Many people succeed by doing negative

things, and if they become owner of a company,

they make it as the company kind methodology.

And they keep applying this. Maybe it all boils

down to parenthood in order to succeed by positive

action. And through that, probably these people

become manager or company owners. They will apply

this. There are some work environment that ruin

people. You mentioned the army in the United

States. I'm Italian. In Italy, the army used

to be compulsive in the past. It's no more mandatory.

And a lot of people that went through the army

came out completely ruined as humans because

it was a total... the negative you can have in

Singapore, which I am nearby, I've been married

for 10 years with a Singaporean lady. The army,

compulsory for males, it lasts longer, but even

the kids from family that are not really the

best after the army they become excellent people.

So it is a blessing or based on where you are.

If somebody doesn't realize in time there is

a negative place, it can have long lasting damages

on their persona. You could use the military

in the United States as a positive example because

when they come out, they are disciplined and

their behavior and everything is completely different.

That's why so many people want to go into the

military because they do a lot here for the person.

The military gives people houses. It's all the

value of the person at the end of the day. And

it is fantastic that this is the value of the

lodge. As I was saying at the beginning of our

chat, if the investment of the company is a $5

million machinery and you only need our Simpson

to press the button, probably the value of the

person will be not so important at the end of

the day, but when you are made of people and

your product, your service comes from the people

that the company has, then it's obviously an

investment that goes above and beyond. If they

don't care and they treat people like robots

and they just want to make the money and that's

all they care about, then the company's not going

to go that far because that's all they're thinking

about is greed, money and power. Eventually,

even if it gets big, there comes a where the

whole thing is going to implode only because

they simply do not care about their people and

they're not doing anything to boost morale at

all. They're literally treating their employees

like robots. the person that they care of, but

more what they can squeeze out of somebody. People

do things they don't like to do in all terms,

and that's not really nice. I teach people these

types of things because where do you want to

be? Where do you want to work? What kind of environment

do you want to work in? How is that business

owner or executive or boss going to influence

you? Is it going to be in a negative way, in

a positive way? Is that going to benefit you?

And how in the future and what are you going

to get out of that? And then what are you going

to give back to that company? in order for that

company to benefit you from working there and

companies paying you. They give you a paycheck

every week or every two weeks or whatever. You

have to be able to perform, but how is that company

operating? How are they treating their employees?

And if the individual doesn't care and they just

want to check and that's what they're doing it

for, then that's a lot of people are not like

that. I'm talking about people who are not like

that, who don't want to be in that. They are

part of the problem because they are It takes

two to tango. If one person gives it, the other

person doesn't have to feed it. And if that person's

not feeding it, then that breaks down the other

person and the other person stops. And I could

think of a hundred exit. We just talked about

it, the fear and the negativity and the trust,

but I have to learn how not to do that. how not

to feed that, how not to allow that person to

do that to me. And that's just the process. And

that's what I teach also. And that's one of the

reasons why I do, when I do the show, I'm doing

all different people from all different industries.

So I could get a variety of these industries

and the way that they operate and how the behavior

and all these things incorporate into that. So

if somebody does a blockchain or whatever, they

might say, I do this because I can operate my

company this way because it's not the industry,

it's the behavior. I was in Florida and a friend

of mine had a nice restaurant, a very expensive

restaurant. And everybody was paid very well,

working at the restaurant. And when in the evening,

the restaurant was closing down and the employee

was leaving the restaurant saying, thank you

very much for your work today to each of them.

And I was like, you're paying them a salary.

Why you need to say thank you? He says, it cost

me nothing to say thank you. And in that moment,

there lies the difference. And I was like, what,

18, 20? But I understood that. And it's not just

because you're paying a salary, then you can

go sleep. There is the human value there and

a simple appreciation can make a huge difference.

And that's absolutely true. So how can they get

in touch with you? Somebody, for any strange

reason, listening to this, they need to prepare

a decentralized system. They're welcome to contact

me. It leads to my website. I just wanted to

share, I think, important that some leader can

think twice about how they set their mood, their

company, make a difference. I'm going to put

the contact information also anyway. Thank you

very much for being on the show. Thank you for

having me. All right, bye.