Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire

August 4, 2026

Welcome to the Workplace Multiplier newsletter. Published Monday to Friday, equipping you to achieve your professional goals faster and without burnout or overwhelm.

I'm still on holidays so I am only sending out emails on Tuesdays till I am back. Here is today's edition.

Only One Person Was Allowed to Shine in That Building

Howdy ,

Let me share something that happened to me recently.

I was called up to speak at an event. The person introducing me got it wrong — "CEO," they announced.

I'm not the CEO. I'm the CCO.

I fixed it the moment I got the mic. I turned it into a joke, so the person who made the error didn't feel small in front of a room full of people.

Anyone can misspeak. That's not the story.

Here's the story: not everyone handles that kind of moment the way I did. And someone else at that event showed me exactly why.

After my session, a gentleman walked up to me. He said he respected that I corrected the mistake immediately instead of letting it quietly become the truth.

Then he told me why that mattered so much to him.

He had worked under senior leaders who could not stand anyone else touching their shine...not even by accident. He gave me his own story.

At some point in his career, he resumed a senior role at a big conglomerate. He updated his LinkedIn. A trade journal picked it up on its own and ran a congratulatory post...no relationship to him, no request from him, just visibility doing what visibility does.

His Group MD was not pleased. He was told to get it taken down.

He didn't even know the publisher. He hadn't asked for the coverage. He was simply visible, and in that building, visibility was the crime.

A few days later, more trade publications picked up the same story. Same discomfort from the top. Same instruction.

He survived it. But he got the message, loud and unmistakable: only one person was permitted to shine in that organisation.

Here's where most of us go next in our minds: "I could never work for someone like that. I would quit."

That instinct is understandable. It is also naive.

You cannot build a career on quitting every time you meet an insecure boss.

If shine-stealing leaders disqualified a workplace, most of us would be unemployed by thirty-five.

But here's what most people get wrong about surviving a boss like that...they think the answer is to shrink. Go quiet. Stop updating LinkedIn.

Let the achievements go unmentioned so nobody's ego gets bruised.

That is not survival. That is self-erasure. And it trains you to become a different person depending on who's in the room.

Go back to how I handled that mic. I did not manage the room's comfort by letting a false introduction stand.

I corrected it, calmly, immediately, and let the truth sit where it belonged. That same instinct is what has to survive a boss who needs to be the only one who shines.

Here is the distinction that matters, and I want you to hold onto it: there is who you are, and there is when you campaign for it.

Only one of those is allowed to move.

Who you are...the truth of your work, your title, your story...does not bend to make an insecure person comfortable.

That is not negotiable. Not for a boss. Not for anyone.

When and how loudly you fight to be seen...that is judgment, not identity.

Choosing patience over a public battle, deciding a hill isn't worth climbing today, picking your moment...none of that is shrinking.

Shrinking is letting someone else's insecurity rewrite your account of what you did. Patience is simply timing.

The executive in my story understood the difference, even if no one had ever named it for him.

He didn't fight to keep every article standing. But he never once denied the achievement, downplayed his role, or let his own story shrink to protect his boss's ego.

He kept producing excellent, visible work. He simply outlasted a leader whose insecurity was never going to be cured by his silence.

Today, he is one of the most respected names in his industry...because the one thing he never let move was the truth about himself.

Your credibility is not negotiable just because someone with more power finds it inconvenient.

Hold the line on being the same person in every room you walk into. Let time do the rest.

Keep winning at work and in life.

Tola Akinsulire
Your Strategic Workplace Mentor