Have you noticed the recent change of seasons? I always feel inspired by the arrival of a new April to change things up myself. How about instead of writing about how awful bosses are, we take a look at how to be the best boss possible? After all, bosses are people too (at least in the biological sense).

So much information, and so little time to review it, which is to say nothing of comprehending and intelligently responding to it. We drift in a world awash in information, gulping it down as quickly as possible in hopes we don’t drown.

Yet, “leaders are readers,” or so they say. Leaders gain knowledge and a degree of understanding by guzzling information.

Why do the best leaders find it necessary to eschew comfort to pursue progress? It’s for the same reason that the best teachers challenge themselves while seeking to disrupt student complacency.

In the workplace and elsewhere, we can witness a different but similar sort of corruption in which an outside influence eats away at integrity until it’s compromised out of existence. That influence could be money or power, but often it’s overwork and stress leading to exhaustion, shoddy work, cover-ups, and increasing dishonesty. Much corruption stems from mental and moral fatigue and the action or inaction of those at the top of the organization.

The power structures and politics of the average workplace provide a perfect arena for cruelty. I have written about the necessity of human decency in leadership and the workplace, and decency forms the thematic backbone of my upcoming book, Greater than Great. I’ve also addressed the causes and types of bad behavior in the workplace, but what about plain mean-spiritedness in our workaday lives?

The current fashion is for business leaders to excitedly prattle on about “moving fast and breaking things,” but that’s most often heedless and even childish advice. “Breaking things” only works if you don’t care much what comes next. One of the fundamental challenges of leadership is deciding if, when, and how to disrupt the status quo—to break things.

There they are. The terminal words. “Common sense.” The phrase is just another way of declaring, “You shut up now. We’re done here.” It’s is a vestige of a supposedly bygone era when bosses simply made up rules as they went along, often after the fact.

It makes an excellent conversation ender because who can argue with common sense? It’s the answer to every tough “why?” or “how?” question that you want to evade. You can even wield common sense in response to quantifiable or demonstrable matters.

Why does the autocratic workplace—that gulag of ineptitude—still hold such appeal? Why are workers willing to overlook their broken cultures and the fecklessness that accompany them? I’ve addressed the mythology of autocratic bosses before, but why do we allow or even want our entire workplaces structured in their image?

Have you ever noticed on social media that people who include others in their selfies are usually the most prominent person in every photo? It’s as though they’re the protagonist in some unwritten narrative. If every picture tells a story, these selfies shout out that one person matters more than the rest. Such photos are visual symbols of main character syndrome (MCS) at work.

When we hear the word “severance” we usually think of a severance package, the money and benefits granted to some terminated workers. But severance refers specifically to the act of severing employees from their employment by “cutting” positions or directly “axing” workers. Like “termination,” these are violent words, indicating a chopping off, an amputation, decapitation, or death. Workplace lingo can be so cruel!