Summary: The author shares a personal story of how a manipulative CEO seduced his wife, leading to his divorce and highlighting the challenges of working under unethical leaders. He offers five key lessons for navigating a career with difficult bosses, emphasizing the importance of recognizing trustworthy managers and maintaining high performance even in tough situations. Ultimately, he advises avoiding direct confrontation with dishonest leaders to survive and thrive in the workplace.
• Don’t confront the snakes directly.
• Don’t become a snake. (View Highlight)
Hold on to these managers as much as you can. Help them grow and succeed so that you can stay together and grow and succeed with them. See success as a partnership with the people you can trust. (View Highlight)
Ultimately, the key to my career success was excelling when I had good managers and just surviving in the periods in between. (View Highlight)
The key lesson here is that high performance is a survival skill, and it should be a priority even when you have a snake as a leader. (View Highlight)
I suffered the most when I confronted amoral leaders directly. (View Highlight)