
Bring the Science of EmotionsTM to Work
… and transform your culture to maximize retention, growth, and revenue
Purpose over Paycheck
Why do good employees leave? Despite what many people think, it’s not necessarily for a better salary. Rather, employees leave when they lack growth and purpose; when they don’t feel a sense of belonging or appreciation. 1 2 3
These are universal human needs and when they go unmet in the workplace, it can lead to high turnover, increased recruitment costs, and a constant drain on talent.4 5 6
To address these issues, organizations may try things like yoga classes or Pizza Fridays, one-size-fits-all training programs, or checking the boxes in DEI.
But these are superficial tactics that don’t address the root of the issue. It’s like numbing the pain of a broken leg with Tylenol. The symptoms may be silenced for now, but the injury persists, until one day it erupts into a crisis that could have been avoided.
To get to the root of excessive stress, disengagement, burnout, turnover, and disappointing overall results, we have to understand what’s driving behavior—people’s emotions. 7
Emotions shape how people perform, collaborate, and make decisions.
The Science of EmotionsTM
We’ve been told over and over to leave our emotions at home, that work should be a place of pure logic, and emotions are distractions that cloud decision-making.
But the truth is, ignoring the rich data that emotions convey is a mistake.
Emotions are biological processes that shape our thoughts, decisions, and actions, and are therefore deeply intertwined with performance and well-being. Our brains continually create emotions as an adaptive mechanism for survival, a process that doesn’t pause when we walk into work.
Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it hinges on how your people feel day to day and the emotional climate in which they’re operating.
The emotional culture of your organization is not a background detail — it is the invisible architect of your organization’s success or failure.
The Science of EmotionsTM offers leaders an evidence-based approach to transform the workplace into a space where emotions are allies, not adversaries. Taking purposeful action to build a climate of emotional agency that supports shared goals is one of the most powerful investments you can make in your team.
When you bring the Science of EmotionsTM to work you foster a healthy, resilient environment where employees feel appreciated, connected, and motivated. This strong foundation will help you attract and retain top talent while driving long-term success.
Sessions* on the Science of EmotionsTM at Work
For Leaders
Small Actions, Big Impact: Transforming Workplace Culture with Strategic Insights from the World’s Happiest Country
- Discover the deceptively simple drivers of true workplace engagement
- Learn evidence-based strategies to empower employees to feel valued, aligned, and motivated to contribute their best work
- Understand how to drive sustainable culture change with emotional agency
- Develop actionable, science-backed skills for building trust, optimism, and a growth mindset
For Teams
Beyond Psychological Safety: Building a Strong and Innovative Team Culture of Belonging and Agency
- Understand the impact of team culture on dynamics, decisions, and innovation
- Explore the links between — and barriers to — belonging, motivation, and collaboration
- Build communication skills to facilitate safe conversations for taking risks and contributing ideas
- Optimize team performance by balancing logic with empathy, engaging both right-brain and left-brain input
For Individuals
Navigating the Emotional Load of High-Pressure Roles: Insights and Strategies from the Science of Emotions
- Understand the impact of emotional load on performance and well-being, with insights from neuroscience and psychology
- Learn to recognize, regulate, and reduce sources of stress in your work environment
- Discover practical techniques to cultivate emotional agency and sustain motivation
- Develop a personal toolkit of science-backed resilience strategies
*These sessions can be delivered as keynotes, workshops, or seminars, and customized to fit industry and audience needs.
Client and participant feedback

Hi, I’m Maren.
As a speaker and workshop facilitator, I use the Science of EmotionsTM to help team leaders recognize the hidden driver of success and failure in organizations – the emotional culture of the workplace.
Rather than ignoring or suppressing their own or others’ emotions, I teach leaders and teams how to interpret, influence and harness the valuable data that emotions offer us, data that each of us carries with us, all the time. As a result, leaders can be intentional about building cultures of emotional agency that drive team success.
As a former executive, I’ve personally experienced the lack of psychological safety in many professional and educational contexts, and understand first-hand the toll it takes. It stops people from doing their best work (because nobody does their best work in survival mode!), exhausts them, and eventually has them looking for the exits.
But when you intentionally shape a culture where people feel valued and have a sense of belonging and purpose, they foster deeper connections to each other as well as the organization, and are more motivated to align behind shared goals.
If you’re ready to bring the Science of EmotionsTM to work and profoundly transform your culture to maximize retention, growth, and revenue, let’s chat.
Relevant articles I’ve co-authored:
How “Carewashing” Alienates Employees (Harvard Business Review)
Resilient Organizations Make Psychological Safety a Strategic Priority (Harvard Business Review)
4 Ways to Spark Creativity When You’re Feeling Stressed (Harvard Business Review)

© 2025 Maren Gube – All Rights Reserved
- S. Hyken, “Beyond Money: The Real Reasons Employees Stay Or Leave,” Forbes, Jul. 09, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2023/07/09/beyond-money-the-real-reasons-employees-stay-or-leave/ ↩︎
- S. Peek, “Why Employees Quit (and How to Reduce Turnover Rates),” business.com, Mar. 17, 2020. https://www.business.com/articles/reasons-employees-quit/ ↩︎
- DDI, “New DDI Research: 57 Percent of Employees Quit Because of Their Boss,” http://www.prnewswire.com, Dec. 09, 2019. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-ddi-research-57-percent-of-employees-quit-because-of-their-boss-300971506.html ↩︎
- K. Parker and J. M. Horowitz, “Majority of Workers Who Quit a Job in 2021 Cite Low pay, No Opportunities for advancement, Feeling Disrespected,” Pew Research Center, Mar. 09, 2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/ ↩︎
- B. Wigert, “6 Workplace Trends Leaders Should Watch in 2024,” Gallup.com, Dec. 18, 2023. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/547283/workplace-trends-leaders-watch-2024.aspx ↩︎
- Deloitte, “Becoming irresistible: A new model for employee engagement,” Deloitte Insights, Jan. 27, 2019. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/deloitte-review/issue-16/employee-engagement-strategies.html ↩︎
- S. Barsade and D. Gibson, “Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?,” 2007. Available: https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Barsade_WhyAffectMattersAOM.pdf ↩︎
Cover Photo by Matt Hardy on Unsplash
















