Why good people become bad bosses | Jamie Woolf and Christopher Bell
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You’ve probably had a bad boss, but you might not realize how easy it is to become one. Leadership experts Jamie Woolf and Christopher Bell unpack “power blindness” — how authority can warp your perspective — and share smart, practical ways to break the cycle of toxic bosses for good.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. You know how sometimes great friends are actually the worst roommates, |
| 0:16.9 | or people who are really kind can be horrible leaders? |
| 0:25.5 | In this talk, organizational culture expert Jamie Wolfe and media scholar Dr. Chris Bell bring this predicament to the workplace, sharing the reasons why some really good people become bad leaders. |
| 0:32.1 | They share things to look out for, and if you're a manager or a leader how to avoid becoming a bad boss. |
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