Dr. Christopher Bell

You need a mirror.

Like a big old hallway mirror.

Like a, I'm going out on Saturday night, I'm trying to check myself out mirror.

You have to be able to see your whole self.

when you ask yourself three very simple, very important questions.

Question number one.

What kind of armor are you wearing?

And what does that armor give you?

And what does that armor cost you?

Question number two, because of your position, people are going to be afraid to tell you stuff.

So ask yourself, what might people be afraid to tell me?

In my case, I sometimes got to take off my spiky armor because I don't want to unintentionally push away people I might care about.

And question number three, the most important question of all, once you've thought about all that, what am I going to do differently?

And that's how you learn.

That's how you avoid becoming a bad boss.

Being a leader means you have an ethical obligation to break that bad boss cycle and to see the advantages your power gives you.

We have this whole industry in this culture around how to survive your boss.

No one should have to survive us.

The power to break that bad boss cycle is in our hands.

We just have to be brave enough to look in the mirror.