Kendra Scott says a horrible manager taught her that being cutthroat isn’t the only way to run a company: ‘The worst boss was my best boss’

Kenda Scott is joining the permanent cast of Shark Tank this season, putting her alongside famously tough investors like Kevin O’Leary. But throughout her career building her eponymous jewelry brand—and becoming one of the richest self-made women—she was surprised to find that being a successful leader doesn’t actually require being cutthroat.

“You can be kind and strong at the same time. It doesn’t mean you’re weak. Kindness does not mean you’re weak,” Scott said in a recent interview with fellow Shark Tank star Daniel Lubetzky. “I’m a kind and strong leader.”

She first learned this lesson in her 20s, after dropping out of Texas A&M University after one year to care for her ill stepfather. She soon launched her first business, a hat boutique that donated proceeds to cancer research. Scott later joined a friend’s travel magazine in the early 1990s, working in advertising sales for Destination Weddings and Honeymoons Magazine. There, she said, she met a manager whose merciless leadership style would shape her approach to running a company.

“I had a boss at the magazine who was a terribly-horrible boss,” Scott said. “I say often he was the best boss I ever had because it taught me everything I won’t ever be in a boss. I will never treat somebody the way that I........

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