The Voice in Your Head Isn’t Alone

Power is a life force. It flows up, down, in, out. That’s it. It’s not a badge you wear, it’s not a throne you sit on. No one owns it. Yet, every so often, you meet someone who thinks their rank or degrees make them a deity. Someone who demands respect instead of earning it, who expects reverence instead of giving it.

I worked with one of those men. Every meeting, he interrupted me. I’d bite my tongue, hand him the floor, nod politely… until the day I stopped. One day, I finally said: “You can speak when I’m finished.”

No sugarcoating. No “Hey, maybe we could…” diplomacy. I basically told him to calm the hell down and let other humans talk.

He never spoke to me again. Hallway collisions? Bathroom run-ins? I’d say hello. He’d glare at me like I was a radioactive hazard. The death stare was real, folks.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. I alienated his kind—fine by me. I was never one of them anyway. Too many people wield power thinking they deserve it. Newsflash: they don’t. No one deserves authority. But if you have it, you better wield it with care. If not, it will hit you square in the chest—and trust me, it won’t be pretty, it won’t be comfortable.

That, my friends, is how good leaders are born. They don’t cower. They don’t hide. They learn. They listen. And when the time comes, they speak—without killing the room.