Successful Leaders Aren't Bullies

A Strong Belief in the Power of Truth

This is the best and most honest book I have ever read. Being a Black Female Attorney from the South, I thought I knew the good from the bad, I thought I had faced people who did not believe what I had accomplished. I remember being the dark sister who was always second best in beauty to a light skinned sister, I recall being the dark girl who was placed in the dumb group, those thought useless to teach and first punished, I remember having those whom I thought were friends call names like smutcake, I remember being molested because I was the least valuable relative. After growing up and going to all White Colleges and having one of the most decent and smart White man I had ever met tell me how smart I was and wrote the best letter of recommendation for me to enter law school, I thought I was on my way. Law school was difficult to say the least, but I graduated and passed the bar in the first exam. I got jobs and in one experienced discrimination that was quickly remedied I believe mostly because I had proven myself an asset. He had to retire. I got other jobs in the South, but not since I was a small child had I experienced real harassment and this was in a job where my first year performance evaluation was extraordinary and I received a raise. My mistake in my second year was in standing up for a White female coworker who was being bullied. Then she and I became targets. It was unexpected and vicious, but I found another job very quickly, the experience destroyed my friend to the extent that it has now been over 4 years and she is still recovering. I thought I was fine at my next job because I am a workaholic and expect to get as close to perfection as I can.. I thought my supervisor and I had a great relationship, even though I began to notice things I thought were just how government employers behaved in Virginia. The first was a counseling because some items were late getting out before the end of my first year, even though she knew I had inherited from her an assistant who was stubborn and found everything to do but work, so I not only put together Standard Opperating Procedures to improve how information went out, I also began to demand work, attempt to train my assistant, I also did most of the work myself. My assistant retired after 40 years because she did not want to do the job I wanted her to. Then the next thing happened, I had implemented a performance plan for my assistant before she retired and I really wanted her to realize for herself if she wanted to continue. When about a week before the last 30 days before I would have to terminate, I went to my supervisor, who was pushing for termination, and asked to give the employee another 30 days to realize and decide how she wanted to leave because of her 40 years, my supervisor who had tolerated this employee's poor work habits for at 4 years became irate and said I was being weak but I stuck to my guns and the employee retired before the month was up simply because she did not want to do the work. Now I am being bullied, not because my work habits have changed, my performance evaluations are still exceeds, but because I challenged a case where we knew the manager had intentionally lied on an employee and I thought rather than let an employee with a 22 year excellent service record to suffer we should report the manager for discipline. That did not happen, but I am again a target and I found this book at just the right time with a complete deal of me and gave me some great insight forward. I cannot thank you enough.