I first met Dave Ramsey in the early 1990s. At the time, he was the co-host of a local radio show called, The Money Game. He had also self-published a book called Financial Peace, which was later picked up by Viking and became a New York Times bestseller.

I had the privilege of working with Dave on the launch of his book, The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. It become a mega-bestseller, selling over four million copies since it first came out in 2003. In fact, month after month, it is still one of Thomas Nelson’s top ten bestsellers. It is the first book that I recommend to couple’s wanting to get control of their finances and improve their marriage.

I first encountered Marcus Buckingham when I bought the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths and took the StrengthsFinder test. I found the premise revolutionary: the most effective method for motivating people is to build on their strengths rather than correcting their weaknesses.

We began using this assessment in our leadership training and staff development at Thomas Nelson. It was a major paradigm shift. It is much more empowering to focus on building people’s strengths rather than trying to improve their weaknesses.

Education comes in odd ways. Most of us think you can only learn from a great leader. I’m here to tell you that you can learn just as much from a bad one—maybe more.

This is fortunate for me, because I’ve certainly had more bad bosses than good ones. You probably have, too. These lessons were certainly more painful, but they taught me what not to do, which is just as important as what to do.

Whenever I write or speak on the topic of delegation (as I did yesterday), I always get a question from someone who says, “But what if you don’t have a staff? How can you delegate?” This question typically comes from staff people, technicians, stand-alone professionals, or start-up entrepreneurs. It’s a great question.

For my first few years out of college I worked as a salesman in the publishing industry. I didn’t have anyone reporting to me. It was just me, a telephone, and an order pad. I didn’t even have a computer.

Many years ago, I had a boss that drove me crazy. He insisted on micro-managing me. He wanted to know every move I made. I had to furnish daily status reports with every call, every conversation, every project, etc. It really got to me. I tried to be patient, but I eventually quit. I just couldn’t succeed in that environment.

In this situation, I don’t think I gave him any reason to distrust me. This was just his management style. Everyone complained about it. He was simply a bad boss. Unfortunately, some are like that.