weekends, because our boss didn’t have a life that he cared
about. The theory I got from that is that you can’t force your
lifestyle and your personal life on the people who work for
you.... I think if I am known for anything in this industry, it is
that anybody who has ever worked for me wants to work for
me again.”
Former Lucky Stores CEO Don Ritchey said that difficult
bosses really “test your beliefs, and you learn all the things you
don’t want to do or stand for. I once was in a situation where I
had to put up or shut up, and I quit, went back to school, to
start a new career as a college administrator. Then a couple of
years later, he was gone and I was rehired. Ultimately I became
CEO.” Ritchey worked for some very good bosses, but it was
the difficult boss who had a crucial impact on his career.
With a weak boss, a leader in training may have to “manage
upward.”
Shirley Hufstedler said, “Some people, at bottom, really
want the world to take care of them, rather than the other way
around. Such people expect their followers to care for them.
For such people, only a crisis—such as a serious illness, a life-
threatening situation, a great personal or financial loss—can
change them and/or their direction.”
The ideal boss for a growing leader is probably a good boss
with major flaws, so that one can learn all the complex lessons
of what to do and what not to do simultaneously.
Ernest Hemingway said that the world breaks all of us, and
we grow stronger in the broken places. That’s certainly true of
leaders. Their capability to rebound permits them to achieve,
to realize their vision.
Robert Dockson told me of the time he was fired by the
Bank of America: “It was one of the best things that ever hap-
On Becoming a Leader