How company culture is ACTUALLY created
CEO to CTO: "A good CTO should be able to deal with that".
CTO to VP Engineering: "A Good VPE should be able to deal with that"
VP Engineering to Engineering Manager: "A good EM should be able to deal with that".
Engineering Manager to Engineer: "A good engineer should be able to deal with that".
Engineer to another engineer asking a question: "A good engineer should be able to deal with that".
That's culture!
That's how we do things around here - it starts from the top and everyone copies unconsciously what the most senior person in the room does unconsciously.
No one creates a toxic culture on purpose.
What's wrong with saying this:
"A good CTO should be able to deal with that"?
This kind of reply is one of the most toxic replies someone can give.
Why?
Because:
✓ it's telling someone that they're not good enough,
✓ without explicitly telling them that they are not good enough,
✓ while coverty undermining and shaming that person about potentially not being good enough,
✓ while being able to claim that they've never said this person was not good enough because they never explicitly said it
✓ while casting doubt in the mind of the person to make them worry about what they actually meant
✓ while subtly, yet palpably, shaming this person in front of everyone watching, and casting a doubt in everyone's minds about this person's abilities.
When shamed, people stop taking accountability.
This kind of sentence is one of the worst I've seen in the industry.
Ask yourself: have I said it to my team?
If so, please stop!
Ask yourself: Has this been said to me?
If yes: How did it affect you?
#cto #ceo #culture #cio #reEngineeringLeadership