‘High performance’ and ‘streamlining’ are getting a good run in the modern CEO’s lexicon. 

But what gets left out of the headline is how culture articulates what these imperatives mean. What meaning do those key words boil down to for the workforce? Is it as simple as expecting more from your people?  

Across industries, companies are cutting roles in response to rising inflation and investment slowdowns. Major firms are taking bold steps: Chevron is cutting 20% of its workforce, Intel expects to reduce theirs by 25,000, and Microsoft plans a 4% cut following investment in AI, to name but a few.  

Behind the numbers lies a deeper cultural shift – one that prioritises productivity over comfort and traditional KPIs. And CEOs are at the forefront of setting this new tone.   

Chevron’s CEO Mike Wirth urged staff to “stop being so nice”, after a McKinsey review revealed that employees “are ‘nice’ even when desired results or behaviours are not achieved”.  

And Lip-Bu Tan, the Intel Chief, made a stand against Intel’s established KPI of team size stating: “Going forward, this will not be the case. The best leaders get the most done with the fewest people.” 

These declarations signal an evolution of the workplace, where efficiency and hitting targets, even with fewer people, is paramount. This isn’t an inherently bad thing, and good culture is not at odds with sentiments such as Wirth’s. As Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School writes, psychological safety is not about being nice but having the right environment to speak openly and fairly without fear of retribution.  

But, as we see here, at the core of these shifts often lie layoffs, which can erode employees’ trust, belonging, and motivation. If not managed effectively these shifts could backfire and negatively impact on the very productivity which the CEOs are trying to boost.  

So perhaps these ‘hard-nosed’ CEOs are at risk of throwing the cultural baby out with the bathwater if they don’t pay attention to the important and effective parts of organisational culture.  

As Amazon CEO Andy Jassy put it: “Most companies that have been successful for any period of time have a culture that’s been a key part of their success.”