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That might seem odd to many. After all, aren’t execs supposed to define and drive the culture? If they work late nights, shouldn’t everyone? Isn’t that kind of the definition of “culture,” even if we don’t totally understand what “culture” means anymore, especially within COVID?
That’s one theory.
But the deeper you get, it makes no sense for executive-level thinking to wrap its tentacles around the entire organization. Consider a few examples:
- “It is important for our culture and collaboration that the entire team sit here in San Diego:” Indeed, perhaps it is. But coastal is expensive, and simply because founders/execs are from San Diego, like Stone IPAs, and like to surf … doesn’t mean everyone needs to try and live there, especially given housing costs and potentially stagnant salaries. If someone can get their job done from Topeka, we should let them. COVID helped more people realize this (although I’m not sure who exactly didn’t realize it before COVID), and again, for the people in the back: we mostly hire employees to get work done. That’s why we still hire largely from bullet points instead of in more creative ways. The bullet points, constituting the task work, are what matters. So who really cares where you sit?
- “We grind and hustle. We do deals and we grow:” That’s perfectly fine…
