I’ve watched the same movie too many times. A CEO starts talking about culture, trust, and belonging. The board nods, the Street yawns, and when the next quarter’s numbers don’t pop, the rhetoric flips. OKRs get weaponized, leaders posture as “tough,” and the organization slides into a toxic grind. Performance becomes the only drumbeat. People disengage. What looked decisive was actually destructive.
I’m writing this because I’ve seen it up close across industries, and because I believe the fix starts where power sits: the boardroom. Until investors and directors demand cultural accountability with the same rigor as financial results, we will keep funding toxicity and calling it performance.
Culture is a Long Game, Measure It Like One
Culture isn’t “soft.” It’s measurable. It compounds. And it pays off; Harvard and Gallup have been saying this for years. But boards rarely hold CEOs to cultural metrics with teeth. That has to change, especially when culture is failing.
Here’s how I’ve seen it work:
Put culture on the CEO’s scorecard. Not as a footnote, this could be 20–30% of variable comp tied to cultural health.
Track leading indicators, not just lagging damage:
Psychological safety by team (validated instruments, not vanity pulse checks)
Engagement and energy levels, not just satisfaction
Sense of belonging across demographics
Manager quality and frequency of meaningful 1:1s
Internal mobility and promotion velocity for underrepresented talent
Pair those with lagging indicators:
Regrettable attrition (and the stories behind it)
Whistleblowing channels volume (make sure the company has one) and resolution speed.
Cross-functional execution friction (can be measured with organizational network analysis, ONA’s)
Triangulate the data with lived experience:
Independent skip-level listening sessions and thematic analysis
Repeat measures quarterly to see trendlines, not one-off optics
This is data-driven humanism: operational empathy backed by evidence. It respects people and performance by insisting on both, measured over time. If boards only reward immediate outputs, CEOs will optimize for immediate outputs.
If boards reward culture as a performance driver, CEOs will build one.
Stop Weaponizing OKRs
When leaders feel heat, they often reach for OKRs as a cudgel, tighten the targets, shorten the cycles, crank up public dashboards. It looks decisive. It breeds fear. MIT Sloan research is clear: toxic culture is the top predictor of attrition, not pay. OKRs are a tool, not a surveillance system. When used to punish, they destroy collaboration and candor, the exact conditions needed to hit ambitious goals.
I’ve watched organizations confuse performative toughness with leadership. They implement OKRs “the harsh way,” then wonder why creativity collapses and politics spike. If your OKR rollout costs you psychological safety, you’ve mortgaged tomorrow’s results to soothe today’s anxiety.
That’s not discipline; that’s panic.
A Simple Stat That Should Keep Leaders Up at Night
I’ve worked with over 1,500 executives. I always ask two questions:
In the last six months, have you experienced toxic behavior?
In any of those instances, do you think you were a cause?
On average, 50% say yes to the first. 99% say no to the second.
The math doesn’t add up.
This is leadership’s blind spot: we see toxicity; we rarely see our role in it. It isn’t always malice. Many of us were trained to win arguments fast, to look smarter than the room, to optimize for our own advancement. Business schools and promotion systems reward “me over we.” The result isn’t intentional harm; it’s unexamined habits that make other people small.
Reflective Accountability at the Top
Turnarounds don’t start with a new survey. They start with a mirror. Frances Frei’s work at Uber is a reminder: progress began when the hard conversations reached the top and stayed there. The questions weren’t cosmetic. They were surgical:
What do we do that erodes trust?
Where do we signal disrespect, explicitly or by omission?
What friction points make our values optional?
What will I change in my own behavior first?
This is reflective accountability: I am part of the problem, and I am part of the solution. It’s not to blame. It’s ownership. And it works because culture follows the most senior visible behavior, not the memo.
A 90-Day and 12-Month Board Playbook
If you’re a director, you can move this quickly and credibly:
Next 90 days
Put culture on the agenda as a standing item, not a “people update.”
Agree on 3–5 cultural KPIs with clear definitions and baselines.
Require a CEO narrative: what I will model, what I will stop, what I will ask my team to change.
Commission independent listening (skip-levels, focus groups) with anonymity and board access to themes, not names.
Next 12 months
Tie a meaningful portion of CEO and ELT variable comp to cultural KPIs and trendlines.
Audit OKR practices to ensure they enable learning and collaboration, not fear.
Set a cadence: quarterly cultural reviews alongside financials, with the same analytical rigor.
Publish a simple culture scorecard to employees. Transparency creates resolve.
A Note on Employee Responsibility
This isn’t about entitlement. Employees sign up for outcomes and effort. But leaders set the conditions. If a system rewards individual heroics over shared success, don’t be surprised when “me” wins over “us.” Boards and CEOs are accountable for the system.
What I’m Committing To
I hold myself to the same standard. Before I ask anyone else to change, I ask: where am I rushing to answers, posturing as certain, or confusing pressure with clarity? I use a Socratic lens with my own team: What did I do that made it harder for you to speak up? What should I stop? What will I practice this week to make trust visible?
The Takeaway
Culture is not a town hall theme. It’s a design choice with financial consequences. If you’re in the boardroom, require cultural metrics, reward them, and model the conversations you want the company to have. If you’re a CEO, lead with reflective accountability and operationalize empathy with data. If you use OKRs, use them to learn, not to scare.
If you want a one-page culture scorecard template and a first-90-days board checklist, reach out. Let’s stop funding toxicity and start compounding trust.
