You leave most meetings feeling stressed, frustrated, and uninspired.
Your boss promotes flat hierarchies and trust but micromanages like crazy.
Team performance is not as good as it could be.
Very few people show up for the company parties.
You spent a lot of time arguing and discussing the behavior of your boss or leadership, after work or in the coffee breaks.
You are getting tired of working over-hours in order to “save” the company.
You hardly ever see your boss doing and behaving in the way he is requiring and demanding everyone else to behave.
There is very little coherence between the value posters on the walls and the daily behavior, communication, and ways decisions are being made.
Sarcasm is the default way to communicate and talk to each other.
Leaving work on time is always being commented with jokes about your good life.
You would never tell your boss about the things which went wrong to avoid his angry reaction and making you feel like a loser.
You are the CEO and know that culture is important and has to do with people, yet you have little idea how to do this people thing. How to talk and connect with people in a good way, so they feel seen, heard, and appreciated.
As a leader, you believe, that people work best under pressure. Trust and good relationships are for hippies but not to make money in your opinion.
Feedback is hardly every given, and only when things went bad.
Despite Design Thinking and all sorts of training and new work and innovation consultants, your new ideas never become reality because it’s too risky.
People are constantly on sick leave.
Performance reviews feel excruciating for everyone involved.
Your team is constantly working under high pressure.
Despite flat hierarchies, you make sure to wait for permission from your boss to avoid the consequences of decisions made by yourself.
Nobody cracks jokes and the atmosphere is tense when your boss is around.