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…when bosses lack compassion, employees even the score.

When… it is difficult or impossible to punish employee misdeeds or remove poor performers, imaginative bosses sometimes still find ways to persuade people to change their destructive behavior.

All bosses can be more effective when they work with, rather than against, the peer culture. Bosses who are known as fair and consistent will get more support from the peer culture when they do their dirty work.

If you, as the boss, believe that you are doing splendid dirty work, stop patting yourself on the back and figure out if you are deluding yourself. Just because you see yourself as fair and humane, does not mean your people see it that way.

As a boss, you can’t always know (let alone control) how other people react to you.

Research on everything from negotiation, to revenge, to company integrity reveals that when people believe they are dealing with a liar… they get angry, retaliate… and lose faith in otherwise competent bosses and colleagues.

…the best bosses master the fine art of emotional detachment. They learn to forgive people who lash out at them, especially those hurt by their dirty work.

If a team of world-class behavioral scientists designed a job that was optimized for turning occupants into assholes, the result would be disturbingly similar to many, if not most, boss’s jobs.

…common features of [assholes’] jobs – power, performance pressure, and exhaustion – provoke bosses to leave followers feeling disrespected, emotionally damaged, and de-energized.

Like other human beings, bosses don’t see their own flaws and do fancy themselves as better than the rest.