“If I am NOT adding value... please kick me out.”
That's the line I opened every new territory with for 32-plus years. I was never kicked out.
I firmly believe there are potentially great leaders sitting on the sidelines right now — reluctant to be seen as “kissing up” to get noticed, unwilling to be the loudest voice in the room. So they stay quiet, and their value stays invisible. That’s not a character flaw. It’s a missing system.
I spent 32-plus years in pharmaceutical biotech, leading people, and was promoted eight times to roles with increasing responsibility. As a field rep, I focused on being valued by my customers — which is where the “kick me out” line came from. As a first-line leader, my focus became KYP: know your people. As I climbed further, it became listening to the field, the customers, and the marketplace, then advocating what I’d learned to the leaders above me. In every part of my career I was practicing Preparation, Intentionality, and Differentiation, before I had a name for it.
Lived it. Field rep to Head of Sales for Dupixent at Sanofi, leading 400+ representatives through one of the most successful launches in the industry in two decades.
Systematized it. Eight promotions later, PID had a name, three pillars, and five areas where it applied every time.
Teaches it now. Through Glass Walls Leadership — coaching, keynotes, the book, and this course.
Great leaders who never got seen because they wouldn't play the game everyone told them they had to play.
The value gets seen, and you never had to become someone else to get there.