Hi Reader,

One of the important roles for leaders is to ensure an environment that fosters the success of others.

That starts by setting the table — creating and nurturing a collaborative and penalty-free culture.

You may have surmised from last week's Newsletter — When Everything Felt Like Chaos — that when I described the turbulent landing at my first private industry job in Miami — that there were troubling currents underlying that experience.

That’s putting it mildly.

During my time there, I witnessed several incidents unlike any I have seen before or since.

In the early days, I was attending a meeting in the President's office with the key finance, operations and sales leaders. Without preamble — and certainly without a knock on the closed door — the Chairman barged in with a head of steam — and spoke in a stentorian voice like none of us were there.

I wish I wasn’t.

"Bob," he said to the President. "I'm told you're holding the chargebacks that are supposed to be deducted from the salesmen." (Company policy required that earned commissions be reversed for products that were returned for credit.)

"Where are they?"

Bob reached below his desk several times, and ended up assembling a stack of pink credit memos on his desk.

It was at least two-feet tall!

The Chairman's temper was legendary.

Even I knew this was not going to turn out well.

"Why in the #*<}{# hell are you holding these?" the Chairman shouted as he slammed his fist on top of the pile.

The President's desk was a long semi-circular model that was attached to the wall on one end and supported by a single leg on the other ...

... at least it was until it ripped from the wall, the leg snapped and everything on the desk slid to the floor in a torrent of paper and desktop detritus emphasized by one loud crash.

Most of us had some experience with this behavior, but instead of being frozen in place as you might expect, each of us quietly slipped out one of the two doors. The Chairman barely noticed and was still yelling when we closed the doors behind us.

The second incident I witnessed needs little explanation.

The Chairman was yelling at his secretary, a shrew who had been there since the dawn of time, putting up with his behavior in ways that none of us could imagine.

He was yelling — walked over to her — picked up her typewriter — and threw it through the second story window landing on one of the cars in the parking lot below.

Without opening the window!

On Wednesday, we'll consider how a company with such a toxic culture could be so remarkably successful when measured by sales and profitability ...

... but a failure when measured by how it treated its employees in creating such a noxious and unhealthy culture.