I left a company I loved. Because of this Senior Leader.

Years ago I was working for a big global corporation. 

I had a boss I loved. And a team I loved. I loved the products we made. And I loved the company.

But there was an incident with a global senior leader, that sealed my long term fate at the company. 

And also taught me a MASSIVE lesson about the conditions that needed to exist for me to be happy in my role.

Here’s the scene

It’s late afternoon in London and myself and 3 colleagues are called to a video conference with our global team.

We jumped on the call but the Singapore team were delayed, so we made small talk with our global counterparts.

The most senior person on the call bought up the topic of an ex-colleague who had recently left the business. It had been big news as this colleague had secured an unbelievable role and a huge promotion going to work for one of our competitors.

This senior leader started mocking our ex-colleague and making personal and derogatory remarks about them and their decision to leave the company. To my horror, the other 3 people on their side of the call joined in with the take-down.

On our side of the call, things remained silent. We were all still friends with this individual and supported their right to make a decision that was best for them and their family.

The Realisation

At the end of the call, I was fuming. I just did not understand why such personal remarks and attacks needed to be made.

I went for a walk around the block to calm down. 

As I was walking I realised something. 

I had ZERO respect for this senior leader or the team under them.

Absolutely none.

My values did not align with theirs and I did not want to work with people whose values were so dramatically different to mine.

This value misalignment was causing friction for me. It had been for a long time. 

But this was a catalyst for change. Seeing it played out so blatantly and in such a nasty way, confirmed for me what I already knew I needed to do.

A week later, I resigned. 

Here’s the lesson

You must respect the people above you. 

If you want to have a job you love, where you can thrive and do your best work, you absolutely need to respect the people in senior roles. 

If they are not people you respect, you need to start making plans to move on. 

Because this misalignment of values will continue to cause you friction. And you will feel powerless to make any changes.

What you can do 

Spend a few weeks taking note. Literally write this stuff down in a notebook or digitally.

1. Note down any time you feel stressed or that there is friction in your role. What is happening in those moments? Write in detail each scenario. 
2. Revisit each scenario a few days later with new perspective and ask yourself - what was happening here that was causing me stress?
3. In your answer is how you find your values.

Now, the reality is, we can’t all resign immediately. But by recognising your values, you can start to understand your role, your team and your senior leaders better.

If your values are aligned, you’ll find your job is probably one that you love. 

If they aren’t, this might be the answer to why you don’t love your job.

And if you want to spend some more time going deep on this, I have a mini-course that can help. Total Clarity will take you on a journey to work out what you intrinsically need in a role and how to apply this to your job hunt. Check it out here

As for me, I can honestly say I have never looked back and regretted that decision. From the stories I heard in the years that followed, that senior leader only got worse. And I was so happy to have an amazing new role and not have to be there to endure it!