The layoffs at Klarna
&gt; The culture of “we are awesome” has dominated most internal communications for the last couple of years, including in 2022. We all believed that we were awesome and would continue growing and winning.<p>This is the big thing that drives me <i>nuts</i>.<p>I don&#x27;t know if it&#x27;s a fragility of ego thing or what the cause may be, but it results in a corporate inability to critically self-evaluate at the highest levels.  If you can&#x27;t say where your weak areas are, you&#x27;re not improving.<p>One of the experiences that untreated ADHD blessed me with was routinely failing classes.  That repeated exposure to undeniable failure (and the consequences of it) really helped me accept that failure is the default.  If you&#x27;re not constantly fighting against failure, you&#x27;re failing.  You can&#x27;t pretend that something didn&#x27;t work out, or stop thinking about it because it hurts.<p>The self congratulatory back-patting (even if it&#x27;s just &quot;everything is fine, we&#x27;re doing great&quot;) is treating success like an achievement.  Success requires vigilance.  Excellence is not an achievement, it&#x27;s an activity.<p>We need more leaders that talk about the things we could be doing better, and doing so inspirationally, not derogatorily.  It&#x27;s ok that you&#x27;re not the best at something.  Very few are.  That doesn&#x27;t mean you can&#x27;t or shouldn&#x27;t do better.<p>Try internalizing that if you&#x27;re not constantly struggling to do better, <i>you&#x27;re not living up to your potential</i>.