I had a leader blow up at me in front of the entire team. We all saw it coming.
We’d gathered to present strategies to our new executive. He’d been in place a few months but hadn’t built relationships with anyone.
The tension was obvious as we presented. His body language oscillated between agitated and bored. Eye rolls. Sharp tone. Arms crossed, uncrossed, crossed again.
Then it was my turn. The last presentation of the day.
Partway through, he lost his sh\*t. Completely blew up. Like I’d tossed a softball and he took a full swing at my head.
I don’t remember what he said. I had an out-of-body experience, somewhere between floating on the ceiling watching the debacle and curled up under the table like a hedgehog.
His tells were screaming the entire meeting.
But we didn’t have the trust to say, “Should we reschedule this?”
No one could ask, “You seem unsettled—what’s going on?”
So we proceeded. And I got detonated.
We found out later he was carrying major personal and business problems that wrecked his judgment.
Should he have blown up? No. A strong leader recognizes their state and either manages it or asks for space.
But if we’d had an effective team dynamic, someone would have named what we all saw. We could have rescheduled. Cleared the air. Or at a minimum, not walked straight into an explosion we saw coming.
Strong teams know each other’s tells. They call it out—whether it’s the leader or a peer.
Weak teams? They watch the train wreck in slow motion. And no one pulls the brake.
Which team are you on?
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