In my work as a leadership and team coach in Silicon Valley, a big problem I see in many companies I work with is a completely overboard exaltation of heroes.
Don’t get me wrong – working smarter and harder to meet a critical deadline has always been a defining characteristic of Silicon Valley culture. The willingness to go the extra mile when needed has played a key role in creating a wonderful amount of innovation, productivity, and meaningful market-changing (and often market-making) disruption.
Yet too many company cultures – and the implicit rewards behind them – go overboard on the working harder front, and don’t do anywhere near enough on the working smarter front.
