Uber exemplified bro-culture gone awry and eventually led its founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick, to resign. While Kalanick helped propel Uber to a global auto-hailing giant, his “win-at-all-cost” approach shoved aside a culture of respect and eventually led to his demise, writes Entrepreneur guest writer John Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Visier, a workforce analytics firm.
Young startup leaders will often hire people who lack the courage to tell their boss when he or she is acting inappropriately. “Where things really go south is if the startup is successful in the marketplace and with its investors,” Schwarz said. “In that type of scenario, questionable leadership behavior is often excused as a ‘necessary winning ingredient’ and feeds on itself, creating a pervasive toxic culture as the organization grows.”