My biggest leadership lesson came from the worst boss I ever had
This is a personal moment that changed my life…
I was 20, fresh into the corporate world, working at a large telco that doesn’t exist anymore.
My role was to support the B2B sales team by onboarding their customers and manually entering every sale into the POS system. Thousands of connections a month, each one had to be submitted before 11:59pm on the last day.
No one asked me to stay back. But I did. Every month.
One June, it was pushing 8pm. Everyone else had gone home. I was still plugging away, trying to get us across the line for EOFY.
That’s when the CEO, let’s call him Matthew, walked by.
He never really acknowledged me. But this time, he stopped, put a hand on my shoulder and asked:
“How are you doing?”
I said, “It’ll be tight but I’ll get them all in.”
His reply:
“You better.”
Then he walked off.
No thank you. No recognition. Not even a smile.
That moment stuck with me.
I made a promise to myself: I will never lead like that. And I’ll never work for someone who does.
Today, I get to work with leadership teams who do value their people and I help them become even better.
To Matthew, thank you.
You showed me exactly what leadership is not
You taught me that every experience, good or bad, is a chance to grow.