Walk Away to Win: A Playbook to Combat Workplace Bullying

Prologue

The meeting in Paris was to begin in five minutes.

As Nike’s new vice president/general manager in charge of basketball for North America, I was about to be introduced by my new boss to my new global teammates. I was like an athlete pumped up for a game, less nervous than focused.

With this role, anything and everything having to do with basketball in North America—Nike basketball’s largest revenue generator—would be the responsibility of my team and me: sales, merchandising, retail, brand, operations. The whole enchilada.

I was in my element; basketball was in my DNA. As a coach’s kid, I ate, drank, and slept basketball growing up, so this felt like coming home.

The global basketball team had tied this gathering to an event called ...