New INC. Magazine Column from Howard Tullman

 

Lead

How to Hire When Your Startup Needs to Grow Up

Many ‘lateral hires’ are complicated and expensive—whether they work out or not.

EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1

Sep 8, 2025

In the life of most startup entrepreneurs whose businesses survive to the ripe-old age of three years, or who have hired more than 100 employees (or both), the inevitable discussions begin around that anniversary or significant benchmark about hiring “grownups” to supplement the founding management team. Occasionally these conversations are initiated by the CEO who understands that he or she needs help, but in the far more typical instances, it’s the investors, board members and sometimes worried key customers who want to be sure that the team is functionally complete and up to the task of managing the obstacles ahead.

To say that these “lateral hires” are complicated, expensive, and very risky is an understatement. In dollar terms, they’re expensive whether they work out or not. But the real cost is in management time and also in the various impacts on the rest of the team that are always part of the process. Balancing egos, adding titles, juggling job descriptions, and finessing actual operating authority are all massive tasks. Just keeping the peace is a challenge. A huge percentage of these sincere attempts and fraught experiments fail miserably and, sadly, rarely soon enough to avoid damaging some critical relationships inside and outside the company.

Causes for the failure can vary widely, but typically focus on blaming the newbie—for obvious, but not necessarily accurate, reasons. Other reasons include (1) a quickly-emergent and readily apparent lack of energy (stamina) and/or little enthusiasm for the day-to-day aspects of the business; (2) a weak connection to and empathy for the rest of the employees; (3) an early tendency to criticize the way the current team has run the business in the past; and (4) a focus and excessive interest in and emphasis on financial and compensation issues.

Sometimes, it’s the CEO’s own lack of interest, support and endorsement that brings about the new hire’s demise. And, of course, there are plenty of cases where the best laid hiring plans get blown up because the critical fit simply isn’t there—neither side of the deal looked deeply and clearly enough into the prospective arrangement to see the most obvious pitfalls. Leaping before looking leads to plenty of subsequent angst and severe remorse.

This is especially true right now when the market is flooded with men and women in their 40s and 50s with tons of documented and valuable experience who’ve been abruptly cut loose by Trump and his rotten DOGE flunkies. Far too many corporate executives and government managers have read the glossy books and seen the heroic movies, but they haven’t got the slightest clue as to how brutal life can be in a rapidly growing startup and how radically different it is from everything they’ve experienced before.

It’s ultimately on the CEO to do his or her best to make these personnel matters work out as swiftly and smoothly as possible, especially because hiring and retaining the right additional talent is absolutely critical to the company’s future. There are two primary concerns about the actions and reactions of the rest of the team that always require attention and some active involvement by the boss.

Youthful passion versus patience and planning

All successful startups are customer-centric and everyone in the place is told by the CEO from day one that being empathetic, attentive, reactive and responsive to the customer’s needs and demands is the most important operating rule for the business. Everything for the customer needs to be done “yesterday” and every problem or hiccup is an absolute emergency where everyone’s running around freaking out. This mindset might work when there are 12 of you sitting in a house somewhere, but not when there are hundreds of employees spread all over the country.

The older and more experienced “newbies” know this—that patience and process are essential even in a crisis—and that, even when your hair’s on fire, you don’t use a hammer to put it out. But the younger team members confuse this considered response with ignorance or indifference. You hear that the new guy “doesn’t get it”—he or she doesn’t understand “our” culture—they don’t fit. And this perception quickly spreads across the company.

The CEO needs to step in and make it clear that this is not a matter of a bad attitude or any lack of passion or interest in the business. It’s a response governed by a more important longer-term consideration. There’s a plan and a purpose, there’s a process in place, there’s a new measured approach to emergencies, and there’s an underlying idea and acknowledgment that if everything’s an emergency, then ultimately nothing gets done.

Let bygones be bygones

New, experienced team members are usually brought in—at least in part—because the systems and programs which had been in place from the beginning need to be strengthened and hardened in order to support the company’s growth. Documentation, for example, is almost always deficient. This requires change, and change is always uncomfortable, but it’s rarely personal. This is another area where the younger old-timers take great offense and umbrage. Every suggestion, each comment and especially observations about the old ways that things were done is taken personally and regarded as an affront and attack.

The team feels that it’s necessary to stick up for the past, that it’s somehow disloyal to suggest that the CEO didn’t get everything right from the get-go, and that saying that things need to be different going forward is blasphemy. They’re offended on behalf of the founders and management team. But the sad truth and the joke is that the CEO doesn’t really care.

As we all get older, it’s so much easier to get over slights, to avoid getting angry or offended by insignificant actions, to forgive and forget about little mistakes, and to not hold grudges. Attention to detail is a critical earlier tenet of startup discipline and nobody likes to see errors or mistakes, but as the business gets bigger and far more players are involved, some problems are going to be inevitable and unavoidable. The focus needs to be on fixing them and not being frustrated about them.

Here again, the CEO needs to speak up and let the team know that, while their pain on his behalf is appreciated, it’s not necessary or useful. Everyone needs to learn from the past but not live there, and they need to get on with building a better and stronger business. The past is a resource, not a residence. If the boss doesn’t give a damn about something, it’s not on you to carry the cross of grievance for him or her. Life’s too short and there are far more important things to address. Let bygones be bygones.

HOWARD TULLMAN JOINS LISA DENT ON WGN RADIO TO DISCUSS CRYPTO AND THE ECONOMY

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE 

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

Please Don’t Make the Starbucks Mistake 

By trying to please everyone—including freeloaders—the coffee company ultimately began alienating the paying customers. 

 

EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1

FEB 25, 2025

Trying to please everyone, or be all things to all people, has never been a successful strategy for business, or for just about anyone other than certain politicians who are adept at smoothly lying to whichever segment of voters they happen to be addressing, and promising them precisely what they want to hear. Millions of them would rather remain deluded than learn the often-harsh truth and be forced to face the painful realities of their lives and their future prospects.

Trump has not only made lying into an art form, but he’s also gotten away with virtually everything. Crime evidently pays when the frauds and thefts are grand enough. And the grifting and graft is regularly celebrated and excused by millions of MAGAts, sycophants, enablers, and venal politicians looking out for their own hides.

Every day we’re also seeing the living embodiment of the “don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness” doctrine from a shameless scoundrel. And here again, MAGAts and right-wing media applaud his willfulness and reckless disregard for the law—at least until they slowly realize that their own oxen are being gored, their businesses are imperiled, and their own parents and kids are being screwed.

Setting the Wrong Example00:0001:42

In all of this chaos and lawlessness, there couldn’t be a worse set of messages for our upcoming entrepreneurs, who are young, naive, and painfully short of memory. The days of the Theranos prosecution and the foolishness and dangers of the “fake it until you make it” attitude are long gone and largely forgotten. So, the temptation to say anything, eagerly overpromise, run blindly full speed ahead, and pray for the best is quite seductive regardless of the size of your business or the years that you’ve been at it.

A current case in point is Starbucks, which is in the midst of its third or fourth massive turnaround — including a layoff of 1,100 corporate employees — and can’t seem to make up its mind about what it really wants to be. As a result, the company is spread a mile wide and an inch deep across 40,000 locations and providing little or no coherent guidance, direction, or vision to stores, licensees, or customers. Nor has this flawed wayfinding been helped by having four CEOs since the pandemic, in addition to periodic visits from Howard Schutz, Starbucks’s creator, visionary, and former CEO/chairman, who lingered too long.

His masterstroke of woke foolishness — in 2018, after an embarrassing and racially charged scene in a Philadelphia store went viral — was to remark that he didn’t want nonpaying customers who were being turned away from using the stores’ bathrooms to “feel less than,” or presumably to have their feelings hurt. Attempting to put that confusing and inconsistent sentiment into a policy or procedural manual to make everyone happy was a fool’s errand.

After years of inviting the world into its shops and truly turning many locations into pre-pandemic offices, the company motto could just as well have been, “Stay for the day without having to pay.” The growing problem was that underlying this welcoming approach was also a policy that asked nonpaying customers, after some modest amount of time, to leave. In addition, it became increasingly clear that the volume and behavior of the freeloaders was discouraging paying customers. The fantasy of openness was a nice sentiment, but the facts on the ground were becoming harder and harder to manage.  

Why Starbucks Is Making a Belated Backtrack

Starbucks has now officially reversed its open-door policy and will focus, appropriately, on paying customers, which makes a ton of business sense. An extensive new code of conduct has been published that warns that violators will be asked to leave and that the cops may be called if necessary. The goal is to make expected behaviors clear for all and to thereby create a better environment for everyone.

But as you might imagine, because the company is still a (struggling) business and not a public service, Starbucks’s new CEO is trying to have his cake and coffee, too. The result is more corporate doublespeak, which is unlikely to do anything beyond compounding the confusion and dumping the onus of interpretation, and enforcement, on the baristas. The new CEO, Brian Niccol, recently told investors that he wants to make the stores “feel like welcoming coffeehouses” and “community centers” without mentioning that everyone entering would be expected to buy a cup of joe or a latté. If this strikes you as a pot full of the same old and tired porridge, you wouldn’t be far off.

At some point, Starbucks needs to admit that the company seeks a certain kind of customer and a certain level of spend that simply cannot include all comers. You can’t please everyone, you can’t serve everyone, and you can’t fool anyone with a story that makes no sense. The unfortunate thing is that senior management has pushed the problem downstream to the frontline troops who are the least prepared and able to police the properties while at the same time trying to serve the paying customers. Things are bad enough that they are constantly navigating the minefield between in-store buyers and mobile customers—all of whom feel at one time or another like second-class citizens.   

There’s clearly no good or simple solution, although removing the bulk of the seating at many stores and converting them into basically drive-up and pick-up shops seems to be working. How?  By better setting and managing the customers’ expectations. But the best and most realistic answer is to bite the bullet and tell the truth: You can’t be all things to all people.

 

HOWARD TULLMAN JOINS LISA DENT ON WGN RADIO TO DISCUSS LESSONS FROM THE ELECTION

 LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

HOWARD TULLMAN AND LISA DENT DISCUSS DOUBLING DOWN ON WGN RADIO

 

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN FROM HOWARD TULLMAN

 

Trump's Master Class in Awful Management

The publicity stunt at Arlington National Cemetery is a lesson for entrepreneurs: doubling down on your mistakes isn't necessarily going to correct them. 

Expert Opinion By Howard Tullman, General managing partner, G2T3V and Chicago High Tech Investors @howardtullman1

Sep 4, 2024

 

One of the most important lessons an entrepreneur needs to learn is when to quit when you find yourself in trouble and in a tough spot, especially when the problem is one of your own making. This doesn't mean giving up on the project or the business. Or ceasing your efforts to succeed or to polish and improve your product or service. And it's certainly not a suggestion that you refuse to help your people get better or stop having their backs. It's just a well-known rule of holes: When you're in one, the first thing you need to do is to stop digging.

Doubling down when you're in the dumps is almost always a bad move. Compounding your mistakes by digging deeper, refusing to recognize reality, being too proud or foolish to admit your error, lying about what happened, or thinking that you can bulldoze your way through isn't the answer. The Trump campaign is providing almost daily examples of exactly what not to do every time Trump stumbles.

The next two months of election campaigning will provide an abundance of misstatements, tactical errors, offensive comments, and, of course, outright lies as well as constant lessons of what to avoid if you have any desire to succeed in business. As Trump becomes more and more desperate, we can expect more despicable claims, more stunts, and a continued exploration of just how low a politician can go.

If you thought the campaign sunk to the bottom, you haven't seen anything yet. The only thing we've learned in a decade of Trump is that things can always get worse, especially as he panics. The latest of Trump's stunts--the completely fake "ceremony" and wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery--was a sham and a typical Trump two-fer. When all the facts emerge, I hope that his team will be humiliated for foisting a desecration on the hallowed grounds.

First, this photo session in Section 60 (with Trump campaign staff and others posing for selfies while standing on soldiers' graves) wasn't an authorized governmental event in any respect, whatever Trump's staff asserts. The Army, normally reluctant to say anything about political matters, published a statement pointing out that Trump's staff was specifically made aware that Army and Department of Defense policies clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds, as well as photography in specific sections.

Second, the photos and video were quickly turned into campaign ads on TikTok narrated by Trump. As if it wasn't enough to trample on the graves of heroes. JD Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, had to claim with a straight face that a video crew and multiple cameras just happened to be there at the time of Trump's visit.

Trump says that he knew nothing about the incident, blaming the families and the government, and taking on the Army. You have to wonder just what he thinks of our nation's veterans and the public. As singer-songwriter Jim Croce once advised: You don't spit into the wind, and you don't tug on Superman's cape. But Trump and team just keep digging deeper.

His people are claiming that this stunt was a smart way to remind voters of the military's painful and deadly exit from Afghanistan which, in no small part, was every bit the product of Trump's own concessions to the Taliban, including the release of prisoners, and closing all the military bases.

The rest of the world (except perhaps for those still watching Fox News) thinks that this clown just held his latest circus in a national cemetery. Trump will never be completely worthless. He will always be a bad example.

David French

 

Eminem on Trump

Eminem   Watch the video 

Watch the Video:   Eminem on Trump

NEW INC. MAGAZINE ARTICLE BY HOWARD TULLMAN

 

What to Do When People Ask You to Lie

Defendant Don demanded unquestioned obedience to his requests to subvert authorities. Business owners can't afford to operate by that standard.

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@HOWARDTULLMAN1

 

As the Trump cesspool of crime continues to swirl, widen and deepen, another group of poor, loyal suckers who worked for Defendant Don at the Mar-il-Legal and at the White House are now being drawn into the vortex of lies that surrounds the Orange Monster. Many of Trump’s past and present attorneys are already seeing their careers disintegrating. All six of his alleged co-conspirators in the latest indictment are attorneys, including No. 1, Rudy Giuliani. They and the rest of the world are watching their lives and futures (and possibly their freedom) being sacrificed on the altar of Trump’s epic narcissism and delusions.

 There are plenty of lessons in this sad saga, but the most critical one is what to do -- or more importantly not to do -- when you’re asked by your boss, your peers or anyone else in your business, to lie. In addition to dozens of people employed by Trump or working in the White House, Trump is also specifically alleged to have asked election officials and others in Arizona and Georgia, not to mention former vice president Mike Pence, to lie for him. 

 And, by lying, I don’t merely mean overtly and directly telling lies. A half-truth is a whole lie. Lying by omission, fake ignorance or turning a blind eye to illegal actions and behaviors beyond the pale are equally criminal and repugnant. Hiding or casually neglecting to produce inconvenient documents or, in the case of Northwestern University, standing by and saying nothing as football hazing and baseball abuse take place right before your eyes, is just as dishonest and dishonorable as holding up a bank, burning critical documents in the White House fireplaces, or flushing notes down the toilet. These people are merely choosing the comfort of ignorance over the inconvenience of truth. 

Silence is a tax on the truth.

To be very clear, we’re not talking here about vague matters of degree or simply shading the truth a little bit as when the founders of Snapchat lied about the way their product actually worked.  This isn’t a case of situational ethics, which are bad enough to be sure and a challenge for every entrepreneur. And, as sick and criminal as “fake it ‘til you make” has been shown to be in the recent past, the present cases of lies and concealment are even worse.

The poor, put-upon Trump flunkies were allegedly instructed and directed by their “boss” to lie, obstruct, and conceal books, records, classified documents, videos, and other evidence, in the full knowledge that the materials were actively and aggressively being sought by federal agents and the FBI.  Suggestions of criminal acts to be undertaken by Trump’s counsel were allegedly made slightly more subtle and oblique, although the truth may be that the directions were far more overt. Trump’s lawyers are now calling his vehement and violent directions “aspirational” advice with a straight face. It was only the reticence and restraint of the attorneys themselves in recording and documenting these actions -- for their own illusory protection -- that have led us to believe that these demands were more suggestive than deliberate, direct orders. Time and tapes will tell.

 On the other hand, the one true thing that we’ve already seen is that people who will lie for you will eventually lie to you. As the rats, enablers, co-conspirators, and counsel rush to abandon the sinking Trump ship and make their own deals with the DOJ -- and the MAGA morons and sycophants in Congress continue to publicly support Defendant Don’s growing craziness -- they all take the time to continually reassure the Donald that they have his back.  Only former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has apparently gone entirely radio silent in an obvious bid to save his own skin, which seems to be working. But the knives are out, the proffers are proliferating; they can’t wait to be rid of the cancer, if they could only find the exits. Hopefully, one of the most well-deserved punishments of Trump will be the liar’s curse:  not that he won’t be believed, but that he’ll never be able to believe anyone else.

Whatever the true circumstances turn out to be in the Mar-a-Lago mess, the fact is that managers, team members, outside partners, vendors, and professionals face similar situations in their own businesses on a far too regular basis. Some of the very unfortunate and last-lasting messages and scars of the Trump years are the mistaken beliefs that lying is as common in D.C. as breathing, that everyone cuts corners and shades the truth, and that only losers and suckers try to act fairly and honestly.

 So how do you protect your business, your teams, and your clients and customers from thieves and liars inside your own shop? Be honest with yourself and admit that, especially in tough economic times, there are always far more reasons and excuses to lie than to tell the truth. That’s not an explanation or justification, it’s just a fact of human nature. There really are no good excuses, but they’re abundant, nonetheless. Remember that it’s always easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. Here are a few things to keep in mind.  

 First, have clear written policies and communicate them consistently, but don’t think for a minute that that’s sufficient to get the job done. Don’t worry or be embarrassed because so much of what’s written will sound like cliches and mission statement BS. Northwestern has had a wonderful anti-hazing policy for more than 10 years and it did nothing to address or resolve the problems they’ve had throughout their athletic department. You can’t legislate honesty. You’ve got to make the right behaviors part and parcel of your company culture -- instilled in everyone from the day they start -- which you do through actions and examples, not just talk.

 Second, acknowledge that it’s not ever easy to be the only one in a group who gets it. Plenty of people always know what’s going on, but only a few are strong enough in the face of opposition to stand up for the truth. It takes considerable courage to be the one who says “no.” Speaking up and speaking out are tough, but these are things that you do just as much for the business and the others you work with as for yourself.  In the end, it will turn out that, even if you’re the first, eventually you won’t be alone. Relationships at work or anywhere else aren’t supposed to be easy; they’re supposed to be honest. Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it'll always get you the right ones.

 Third, keeping your mouth shut in the interest of keeping the peace isn’t being passive, it’s being complicit. And it’s just as bad for the business as outright lying. There aren’t degrees of the truth. Going along with the group, ignoring the obvious, blaming the circumstances or the times, accepting half-truths and rancid rationalizations and preferring to accept convenient and painless fantasies rather than the thorny and difficult truth are short-term solutions. Such cheap compromises are sure to return to bite you. In addition, they suck all the joy out of the workplace and slowly impair the morale of your best people. No one likes living a lie.

 Finally, remember that determining the whole truth isn’t always that easy, so before you step forward and call anyone out, it’s critically important to do your homework. You can’t take some of these things back once they’re out there. Make absolutely sure you know what you’re talking about before you open your mouth. In some cases, owners and managers don’t know the truth; in others, they can’t acknowledge or face the truth; and then there are those who are lying to cover up the truth.

 Bottom line: It’s as hard to tell the truth in some cases as it is to hide it, but if you tell the truth, it becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your future. And if anyone asks you to lie, they couldn’t care less about you or your future.

NEW INC. MAGAZINE ARTICLE BY HOWARD TULLMAN

 

Don't Turn Your Business Over to the Trolls

If you don't stand up for your company's values, the vacuum won't go unfilled. Defendant Don has shown that lies are powerful. Leaders need to speak up or their employees will do it for them-- right or wrong. 

 

BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@HOWARDTULLMAN1

 

Summer TV is the worst. A three-month mediocre mashup of cheap and embarrassing reality shows, real estate porn, and an endless collection of reruns that weren't worth watching the first time around. As we roll into August, there are only two things that are demonstrably less appealing to contemplate than another month of fruitlessly smashing your remote searching for something to watch.

First, the fact that the summer season of eyewash and squalor may never end because of the writers' and actors' strike. Thank goodness for Netflix's backlog and the few offshore, non-union productions that are still cranking out new stuff. And second, the prospect that the 2024 election is highly likely to be a painful, perverse, and putrid repeat of the last Biden-Trump battle. To paraphrase Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be these two guys. As someone recently said, with all of Defendant Trump's accumulated legal problems, frauds and lies, and sexual predations, the only job he probably could get at this point is the Presidency.

Two old men-- one bitter, crooked, and destructive and the other tired, tongue-tied, and torn in too many directions by his own stupid party - will duke it out, spend hundreds of millions of dollars to no good end, and not change a single voter's mind except maybe for those who are dissuaded from voting by all this nonsense. Once again, most voters will already know what they believe and who they're voting for, right or wrong; they're simply looking for reinforcement and reassurance rather than any kind of enlightenment or education. 

As much as I hate creepy Mike Lindell, I'd rather skip the next 18 months of ugliness to see these two old codgers in a charity pay-per-view cage match using My Pillows to harmlessly beat each other up with all the proceeds going to institutions that can save lives, feed children, and make some actual difference in the world. Instead, we can expect non-stop noise, negativity and name-calling--mostly from the MAGA morons-- and not much else.

The Democrats still haven't learned who they're battling and just how low these creatures will go. Going soft seems to be in vogue everywhere these days - certainly when you look among Democratic politicians, starting with the president. They all seem afraid to say virtually anything to avoid offending anyone. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, with their old school protocols, stupid antiquated rules and time-consuming procedures are clueless and aren't up to the battle. The game today is all about heat, not light, and they're losing every day. President Biden really needs to get into the fight, or he may get beat because people today understand passion and energy much better than facts and figures.

The singly most frightening aspect of Trump getting back on the debate stage with Biden is that the Orange Monster's rants, rages, lies and sheer presence will blow Uncle Joe away. Trump's passion may be fraudulent, his language may be libelous, his tales may all be lies, but the power and theatricality of his performances and the overpowering force of his debauched and despicable personality are undeniable. They connect with millions of confused and unhappy people today who are easily swayed and looking for guidance and charismatic leadership for anyone and anywhere they can find it.

Regrettably, Trump and his clones continue to show the world and demonstrate that screaming, scheming, and whining often succeeds. Too many people simply no longer care for the warm and fuzzy pablum the Dems are putting out or believe that good thoughts, calm competence and good deeds matter.  They've been taught that the louder the lie, the more likely it is to be believed. It's all about confrontation, conflict, complaints and criticism rather than reason and rapport. Sincerity and subtlety are remnants of times long past and sadly these are Biden's strengths.

We live in a media-made world of fake tough guys like Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The message of their constant threats, claims and belligerence bleeds through whether you like it or not and infects people who work for you as well.  This rot is contagious and it's also impacting our peers, our partners and our kids. Far too many entrepreneurs are trying to fight the onslaught of cynicism, selfishness, and victimhood by bending over backwards to placate and pacify their employees and offer them things that simply make no sense for their businesses - all in the name of buying some peace and quiet. This is a very slippery slope and, unfortunately, all these actions aren't being interpreted by the younger workers as expressions of care and concern; they're being seen as signs of weakness and as concessions, which most often precipitate further demands.

Whether the issue is "work from home," debates over company policies or positions, comp questions or dress and pet codes, it's starting to feel like too many of the loudest and most vocal "inmates" think they should be running the asylum. Putting aside the governance concerns, and the damage that's always caused by dragging performance and politics into the workplace,  I think a much bigger question is the risk that the key members of the team -- focused, heads-down, and working their butts off every day - will lose confidence in senior management, believing that they no longer represent the aggressive and competitive leaders.

If you look around, the signs of "softness" are spreading. Who really knew that Scott Galloway, a New York University marketing professor, prolific pontificator, and erstwhile celebrity podcaster had a soft and sensitive side and, far more importantly, who really cares. I'm glad he loved his Mom and loves his kids but was that the reason that anyone paid attention to his entertaining and usually enlightening speeches, classes, courses, marketing screeds and profane stock predictions? I don't think so.

If that's the direction he's headed in his Pivot podcasts along with Kara Swisher's constant updates on her family affairs, opening night fetes, and non-stop name dropping, I'll be pivoting promptly to some new sources for the tech spiels, scoops, and stick-it-to-ems that were once the duo's stock in trade. Galloway morphed from a hard-edged and critical corporate analyst to a happy house husband and pseudo-psychiatrist. He was strong and strident and now he's soft and squishy. Whatever is driving the new plentiful and painful sharing, it's just TMI and certainly too much for me.

And it's just another version of the "bring your whole self to work" delusion that ignores the abundant evidence that almost no one in charge really cares about your whole self, all your hurt feelings, your triggers, and your conviction that you're grossly under-appreciated, under-valued, and unfairly compensated. If you're unhappy with your job and your life, find something else to do and somewhere else to work.

If you're watching your business slowly float away from you and you feel as though you're losing control of the conversation, now's the time to step in and stem the flow by saying, "enough is enough."  Your people need direction, vision and leadership and you can't do the job halfway. Make your message simple, short, and strong. The rules haven't changed: the ones who care the most win. Don't wait for things to get worse. Be difficult and direct when you need to be. Tell the truth - stand up for what you believe is right and fair - and tell your people why it's worth the pain and struggle to do the right things the right way.

As former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously told President George H.W. Bush in discussing how the U.S. should respond to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait: "Remember George, this is no time to go wobbly."