Leadership Starts with How I Treat the "Little Person"

Today, while making my usual social media rounds, I shared my dissatisfaction with Nextdoor, its culture, and CEO Nirav Tolia.

I started thinking about where I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my life.

It wasn't in a boardroom or a Stanford classroom.

It came from working everyday jobs—sweeping floors in a deli, delivering newspapers, cleaning gum off a movie theater carpet, and doing the kinds of jobs that keep society moving.

Those experiences taught me a simple creed:

Treat everyone as if they were the CEO.

The person making the sandwich at Jersey Mike's. The attendant pumping gas in Oregon. The landscaping crew cleaning up the neighborhood. The janitor, the cashier, the receptionist, the call center agent.

Everyone deserves to be acknowledged. Everyone deserves to be heard.

That's where I believe the culture problem at Nextdoor begins.

I'm not a billionaire investor. I'm not a celebrity entrepreneur. I don't have a television show or a Founding Shark title. And I don't automatically agree with every mention of AI as the solution to everything.

Does that mean my feedback should be ignored? My questions silenced? My LinkedIn account blocked for expressing shareholder concerns?

Leadership isn't measured by how you treat influential people. It's measured by how you treat the person with no power at all.

I'd rather treat the building environmental services engineer like they're the CEO than imitate a CEO who dismisses the little person.

Because one approach builds loyalty and trust.

The other builds resentment.