The Framework
The Six Frequencies of Human Flourishing
In radio communications, a frequency is not a preference. It is a requirement. The same principle governs human beings in organisations.
The Six Frequencies® — a registered trademark of Luc Smet
Frequency 1
To Be Truly Heard
Not managed, not processed — truly received.
Most leaders think they listen. The person speaking wanted to be received — their thinking fully arrived at, not sorted and responded to before it was complete. The difference between those two experiences is the difference between a conversation that changes something and one that leaves the person feeling more alone than before it started.
The advice monster — the compulsion to provide a solution before the problem has been fully stated — is the most common obstacle to this frequency. It feels productive. It is the opposite of what is needed.
In practice
Before responding, ask one question whose answer you do not already know. 'What do you most want me to understand about this?' is a leadership question.
Frequency 2
To Matter, and To Know It
Seen in their specific contribution, not as a generic resource.
To matter is not to be appreciated in the aggregate. It is to be seen specifically: this person, this contribution, this quality that would be missing if they were not here. Generic recognition does not generate this frequency. It generates the appearance of it while the underlying need goes unmet.
The specificity principle is simple: what you name, you make real. The leader who can say 'I noticed the way you handled that moment, and I want you to know it changed the outcome' is doing something entirely different from the leader who says 'you're doing great.'
In practice
Before your next one-to-one, identify one specific thing you genuinely noticed in the past two weeks. Not a result — a quality of how the person worked. Name it directly.
Frequency 3
To Be Respected
Consent honoured and power asymmetry acknowledged.
In the employment relationship, the power differential between employer and employee is structural and legal. When a leader asks for agreement, the request is made within a framework the employee cannot exit without cost.
A pressured yes — the yes that comes because the no does not feel safely available — is the most dangerous agreement in any organisation. It becomes the grievance, the disengagement, or the departure.
In practice
When asking for agreement on anything significant, explicitly name the alternative. Make the no available in language, and wait for a real answer.
Frequency 4
To Move and Choose Freely
The autonomy that drives real engagement.
Autonomy is not a preference or a perk. It is a physiological requirement. Karasek's demands-control model demonstrates that high demands combined with low control generates chronic physiological stress with measurable health consequences.
The prior trust paradox: trust must be extended before it is fully earned, because trust that waits for proof is not trust — it is monitoring with better PR.
In practice
Delegate the problem, not just the task. Give genuine ownership of the method, and stay available without hovering.
Frequency 5
To Belong Without Condition
Not fitting in — genuinely belonging.
Belonging is not inclusion. Inclusion is structural — a policy can produce it. Belonging is relational — only a quality of human attention can generate it. A person who is included but does not belong is present in the organisation but not of it.
The leader who generates this frequency signals consistently that each person's specific presence is wanted — not their performance, not their output, but the particular quality that their being here brings to the whole.
In practice
Name what each person brings that no one else does. Then make sure they know you know it.
Frequency 6
To Live Towards Something
Connected to purpose, not just to output.
Purpose is not an HR strategy. Viktor Frankl identified the will to meaning as the primary motivational force in human beings. Amy Wrzesniewski's research shows that people with a sense of calling are substantially more engaged and more effective than those with jobs or careers.
A leader who cannot name why their work matters beyond its commercial outputs cannot help the people around them find it. The question is not what does your organisation do. It is what would be lost if your team did not exist.
In practice
Ask your team: 'What would be lost if we did not do this work?' Stay with the question long enough to find an answer that is actually true.
Where are the gaps in your leadership field?
The Six Frequencies Workshop takes leaders through the full framework in one day, with a diagnostic audit, five live exercises, and a 30-day practice commitment built into their calendar before they leave the room.