Years ago, before executive search, I was temping at a major television network supporting senior executives.
When I started working with the company, I was in the production facility. My main job was to walk operations paperwork around the building, collecting sign-offs from various departments.
The man I worked for was Ted Baxter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show incarnate. When he needed to use the facilities, he would emerge from behind closed doors and bellow: “I have to go potty, now.”
Before long, I ended up on the executive floor.
At the time, the company was in turmoil and under enormous pressure for change.
In came a new network head. The Big Shot from Hollywood. When he came East, it was my job to look after him.
My workstation was outside his extremely large office that was filled with televisions, VCRs, monitors, remotes… Oddly, there was not a single sheet of paper anywhere. There was also a full bathroom ensuite with maybe even a jacuzzi, though I can’t be sure.
My job supporting him was surprisingly undemanding too. I had one recurring assignment.
Whenever he flew into New York from the Coast, I had to make sure the airline rolled out a red carpet when he landed at JFK. Yes. An actual red carpet.
The first time his assistant in Los Angeles explained this to me, I thought I had misunderstood.
“Wait. What? A red carpet?” I asked. “You mean he expects an actual red carpet?”
“Well, yes,” she said, without a trace of irony. I could hear a big smile in her voice. “He really likes that. It makes him happy.”
My cynical self was thinking I needed to drink some of the water out there in LA! Still, I lobbed the calls to make the Big Shot happy.
I don’t know. Maybe it was the cultural differences between LA and NYC. But what has stayed with me is how something that seemed so over-the-top to me was business as usual to everyone else. An entire organization had learned to treat the request as perfectly normal.
Power. It can do funny things. But the trappings of power are not the same as leadership.
Power can also be insulating. A leader’s personal preferences can quickly become organizational priorities when those around them are overly focused on accommodating rather than pushing back when necessary.
One of the most important qualities a leader can possess is an openness to listening when a trusted colleague asks, in effect, “Do we really need the red carpet?”
Suffice it to say, my temping days at the network didn’t last much longer. And it was just as well. By then, I had seen enough.
— Monica Burton
This essay is adapted from The Heart of Leadership, a memoir in progress.
© 2026 Monica Burton. All rights reserved.