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