Biz leaders could learn a thing or 2 from the way Ayo Edibiri directed her very first episode of ‘The Bear’

Ayo Edibiri directed episode six on season three of “The Bear.”
The actor said she tried her best to stay in a good mood and “talk decently to people” on set.
Studies show that employees want to feel valued and appreciated at work.

Ayo Edebiri stepped into the director’s chair for an episode on season three of “The Bear,” and she says her focus was on bringing positive energy to the set.

“I tried my best to just be in a good mood, try to talk decently to people, because that I think can do a lot for how the workday flows,” Edebiri told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.

Edebiri has won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice Award for her role as chef Sydney Adamu on “The Bear,” where she acts alongside Jeremy Allen White.

In an interview with Variety in December, White, who plays chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, explained that since the focus of the second season was on transforming The Original Beef of Chicagoland into an upscale restaurant named The Bear, there was less cooking on set.

“But now, in the third season, I think we’re going to go back to that functioning kitchen atmosphere that we had in the first,” he said.

Edebiri, a comedian, writer, producer, actor, and now director, said she turned to the show’s creator Christopher Storer for inspiration while directing the episode. “Energy kind of goes from top down,” she said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

And it’s not just actors who need positive energy. Employees also want to feel valued and appreciated at work.

A 2021 study by the global management-consulting firm McKinsey found that one of the top reasons people quit their jobs is because they don’t feel valued by their company or their manager.

“CEOs need to invest more time, energy, and resources into developing their culture, into developing their employees,” Jasmine Hill, the CEO of Radiant Slate Consulting, told Business Insider.

Being pleasant to people at work has benefits at home, too. According to research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 2018, behaving well at work can even help you sleep better.