There’s something bad bosses do, and Patrick Radden Keef sums it up perfectly in Empire of Pain, an analysis of the leadership at Purdue Pharma. In a discussion with a former executive at the company, Radden Keef reveals how their leadership managed. “They would just inflict themselves on us,” the executive said. This, of course, negatively impacted performance. While there are some egregious examples of this management style in the book—for instance, the CEO would often let his dog defecate in the hallway and leave it for others to clean up—there are times when leaders might not know they are in “infliction” territory. One great example is doing or saying something just because you can, not because you should. Wasting the first 10 minutes of a meeting talking about your recent ski trip is a great example of inflicting. Your employees’ time is valuable, and you need to treat it as such. Employees are there to get a job done, and if you’re not helping them do exactly that, you should question whether you’re leading or inflicting.