I do not believe that the US approach—in many sectors, but particularly in finance—of putting your career before your family life is a good use of the unknown and limited time we have on this planet.
That said, I am an entrepreneur, and the buck stops with me, so if I need to work weekends than I will juggle that obligation while still being there for my son.
Part of my reason for this approach is based on what my father once told me, that in life you'll juggle a lot of important balls, your career ball, your family ball, your health ball etc. The gist was, life is a juggling act, but his final word on it was something along the lines of, "Your family ball is made of glass, and if you drop it, it could shatter so much that you will never be able to piece it together again."
Obviously what is happening in an employee's life will have an impact on their work life. Saying things like, "if you miss your KPIs than you're fired" isn't going to motivate your staff, especially the ones who need to up their performance. Firing people who don't perform creates a situation where staff members will live under fear and that doesn't usually create great customer experiences.
And this leads to another point, if you are a good leader, you should never be in a position where you need to remind people that they need to work weekends if they are behind or they will get fired. He’s the CEO, the buck stops with him. If he communicated the problem they are solving, the company’s mission, and put in the right culture, hired the right people, you don’t need to say such things.
IMHO a good ‘Culture’ would have the following values:
1. Spartan Wall – We win the battle for our customers by protecting/taking care of each other.
2. Obsessive Customer Empathy – We are our customers’ biggest advocate.
3. Unfiltered Brutal Truth – Feelings, rank, politics NEVER have priority over truth and what’s right.
4. Proactive Problem Solving – When we hit problems, we do not put our hands up, we find a solution.
5. Laser Focus – We only keep to the problem and the mission.
6. One Destination, Autonomously – While we work loosely together, we all have the same mission and we are all in it together.
I bet you all the money in the word Nikolay Storonsky—the CEO of Revolut—doesn’t actually understand that a CEO’s job is to create the environment to find, motivate and retain people who are focused on the problem the company is solving, believe in the company’s mission, and are a fit for the company’s culture. IMHO venture success is the result of building an organisation that does this.
I wish Revolut all the luck in the world but the fish rots from the head!