I’ll admit it: my guilty pleasure this month has been watching Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat on Prime Video. There’s something captivating about seeing a perfectly orchestrated workplace drama unfold — especially when only one person doesn’t know it’s happening. But somewhere between the team-building exercises and the boardroom maneuvering, I found myself pausing the show for a different reason. Yes, to laugh. But also, to think.
Because tucked inside this elaborate comedy are some surprisingly rich leadership lessons.
If you’ve not seen the show, here’s what you need to know (no spoilers): everyone in the show is an actor — except Anthony. He’s a real temp worker, hired to help with a weeklong corporate retreat for a fictional family-owned hot sauce company. Every colleague, every crisis, every awkward moment has been staged. Anthony is the only one who doesn’t know it.
And yet, by the end of the week, Anthony has become the undisputed heart of this organization. Not the CEO. Not the heir apparent. Not the polished private equity team circling the company. The temp.
What Anthony demonstrates — without an employment contract, a corner office, or a parking spot — is that leadership has never really been about the titles and trappings. It’s about the heart you bring to the work, the genuine intention to serve, and the action you’re willing to take to help those in your orbit to succeed. And Anthony brings all of that to this retreat experience… which makes me think that we all could learn a little something about leadership from Anthony.
Here’s what Anthony can teach the rest of us about leadership.
Lead With Empathy
Empathy is Anthony’s (and many successful leaders’) superpower — and it shows in every interaction. When people need to be heard, he listens. When colleagues are vulnerable, he creates safety. He keeps confidences, lifts others up, and consistently helps the people around him show up as their best selves.
Far from a ‘soft’ skill, this is one of the hardest capabilities for many people to develop and demonstrate. And yet it’s central to trust and connection at the core of leadership. But here’s the good news: you don’t need a title to practice it. You just need to pay attention to the people around you.
Step Up When There’s a Void
When something needs doing, Anthony doesn’t stop to calculate whether it falls within his job description. His default is yes. Someone needs help? He’s there. Is something falling apart? He steps in. No negotiation, no positioning, no waiting to see if it’s worth his while.
That bias toward action and service is a leadership stance available to anyone at any level. It signals to the people around you that you’re invested — not in your own advancement, but in the shared work. People notice. They remember.
And it’s how informal authority is built, not through titles conferred from above, but through consistently showing up when and where you’re needed — especially when it isn’t required of you. Every organization has voids waiting to be filled. And the people who fill them earn trust that no org chart can manufacture.
Stay Loyal to Something Larger than Yourself
Anthony is a temp. By definition, he has no long-term stake in the outcome of this retreat. And yet he genuinely cares — about his colleagues, about the organization, about what happens to the people he’s come to know during a single week. That loyalty to something beyond his own interests is precisely what makes people turn to him when things get hard. Investing genuinely in the people and mission around you, regardless of what’s in it for you, is both rare and magnetic.
Here’s the thing about Anthony: he never set out to lead. He showed up to do a job. But somewhere along the way — through kindness, consistency, a willingness to step up, and a genuine investment in the people around him — he became the person everyone came to rely upon.
You don’t need the title. You don’t need the office. You just need to decide to show up as a leader. Like Anthony.