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June 2026
Picture this: It’s Tuesday morning and I’m working out of my home office, dialed into a video conference call with the sales team.
At the time, I had left the family business because I was fed up dealing with Randy, the Sales Manager. It wasn’t easy. But my dad understood and even gave me a reference for a job in business development working for a bigger company in town doing similar things.
So, we’re just chatting, catching up, and the CFO blurts out, “What the heck is your problem, man?!”
Wow! That’s intense.
Looking around on the screen at the faces of my colleagues, I realized that he was talking to me.
“The Davidson Distribution account is in the toilet. What the heck did you do?!” he said, not letting up on the intensity at all.
I started to respond, but he just cut me off and yelled over me.
“Get it together! Get that account back on track! And do it quickly!” He was like a runaway freight train. “New guys come and go around here. And I don’t give a hill of beans who your old man is. You’re going to produce here, we don’t do free rides!”
I was literally shocked. I mean, Randy was a jerk with low EQ. But this guy was next-level toxic. And worse yet, the Davidson Distribution account wasn’t even mine. Heck, I didn’t know whose it was, and I sure didn’t know what he was talking about.
In any case, his little tirade went on for several minutes, and when he finally ran out of gas, I was just sitting there, speechless.
I quickly glanced at the screen to see the look on Dirk’s face; he was the VP of Business Development. Of all the people in the room, Dirk knows this isn’t my account. He’ll stick up for me and set this dude straight.
But, instead of Dirk’s face, I just saw a circle with his initials DF and the little microphone with a slash. He had turned off his camera and muted himself.
Come on… No, you did not.
I felt like Uriah the Hittite must have felt in that old Bible story when Joab withdrew all the troops around him. Burned by “friendly fire” and hung out to dry, brutalized.
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Modern leadership experts agree:
"People don’t quit companies, they quit leaders.”
Healthy leaders recognize and respect the fundamental expectations built into the employee/employer relationship.
These fundamental expectations make up an unspoken, unwritten, informal social agreement called “The Leadership Contract.” It is the tacit understanding between staff and their supervisors regarding reciprocal expectations.
As a leader, I am committed to:
Providing great clarity about who we are, how we do what we do, and what we are about as an organization
Helping our people understand their wiring and working together to play to their strengths
Empowering our people to play to their strengths rather than micromanaging them
Building high-impact teams of healthy individuals who are aligned on our mission, and who are working strategically together toward common objectives, with accountability for results
Fostering dialogue rather than a culture of authoritarianism or “telling” people what to do
Carefully crafting meaningful and productive meetings
Intentionally developing our people, such that each team member has a development plan
Clearly communicating the results expected from everyone’s work, and providing metrics to measure those results
Fostering real and genuine relationships
Intentionally rejecting homogeneity, treating our people as a diverse collection of individuals
Providing regular feedback to each staff member
Keeping my ego in check
Food for Thought:
When it comes to building a genuine, supportive inner circle, it is commonly said, “Surround yourself with people who fight for you in rooms you aren’t in.”
Ultimately, this stems from people’s innate need to be cared for, built up, and championed. As a leader, it’s important to ask yourself: How well does my staff trust me to meet those needs by upholding The Leadership Contract?
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