Stop confusing “formal power” with “knowing what’s best.”

The Context Of Things

Here’s a personal story to open. I worked for ESPN, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine from 2005 to 2011 (bit more on that here). I was ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine from 2007 to 2011. Most of that time, my boss was this woman. She was super nice (although very off-task and really wanted to be working on the TV side and not the digital side, but that’s a whole separate post topic) and honestly, I owe her a lot. I was a total asshole during that time in my life (some things have changed, albeit slowly) and she mostly tolerated me and didn’t fire me, although she probably could have had reason to on a few occasions. She’s a good person and my goal here isn’t to throw her under any kind of bus.

Here’s the thing, though: she had formal power within the digital world of…

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