The Big Tech Backslide Even Darwin Would Disapprove Of

Who would have predicted that in 2023, with the AI revolution afoot, the leading names in tech would be regressing to archaic management styles they themselves eschewed merely a decade ago?

Take Salesforce as an example. According to a recent Bloomberg article, Salesforce’s celebrated employee-friendly culture and family-like values are no more. The company has chosen to adopt a more Darwinian approach. Its employees are now expected to perform at a much higher level—or risk being fired. Rating-and-rankings are back. Brace yourself, warns the article: the era of cushy tech jobs is over, and it's not just Salesforce; giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft are tightening their belts and wielding the axe.

This abrupt shift reveals something quite stunning about our management thinking. We seem to be oscillating between two extremes: the Industrial Age doctrine of pressuring and holding employees accountable for performance, and the Humanist philosophy advocating trust, employee well-being, and autonomy and expecting performance in return.

The problem, as I’ve shared before, is that neither of these management philosophies fosters sustained high performance, especially during disruptive times. The Industrial Age model, while yielding short-term results, eventually leads to disengagement and burnout. Conversely, the Humanist approach, with its propensity to coddle employees with comforts, fosters complacency and entitlement, as exemplified in many tech giants.

What we seem to be blind to is an entirely different paradigm, a culture where people continuously raise the performance bar for themselves—because they genuinely want to, driven by their own will and conviction, not because they are pressured, rewarded, or coddled. This blindness keeps many companies, especially in the tech industry, trapped in a state of arrested development as they swing back and forth between the “nice guys” and “capitalist ogres”.

Think of a leader you admire (Satya Nadella, for instance). Why do they get up every morning and challenge themselves to perform at their absolute best, and then push themselves even beyond that? Their drive extends beyond ego or salary; it's fueled by a profound sense of responsibility and caring for the success of the business, its people, and the difference it makes in the lives of its beneficiaries. (I draw this insight from my 5-year tenure at Microsoft, observing Nadella's leadership firsthand.)

Now, envision every organization member embodying this level of responsibility, accountability, and caring every day. What would it take to awaken this kind of intrinsic, purposeful drive in them? How would it impact their performance and commitment to raising their own performance bar? Would they still need external nudges or coddling?

The answer appears self-evident. This insight holds great significance for companies like Salesforce and many others:

• Learn to awaken and sustain a Nadella-like sense of responsibility, caring, and imperturbability within every individual and team.
• Cultivate a culture and work design that harness and direct these qualities toward the business's strategic imperatives.
• Rigorously assess leadership and performance management practices in your company: do they nurture responsibility and caring, or do they inadvertently suppress them? (Note that the Industrial Era and Humanist philosophies undermine these essential qualities!)

Implement these changes and you won’t need to coerce, manipulate, or coddle your employees ever again; their performance will rise naturally, and they will thank you for it.