The Away CEO’s Bullying Isn’t a ‘Management Style’
Don’t confuse being a tough leader with being an asshole
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Co-authored with Melissa Nightingale
Last month, after the Verge published an exposé on how Away CEO Steph Korey berates her employees over the company’s public Slack channels, things blew up very quickly. Within four days, Away announced that Korey would step down. Then, earlier this week, Korey abruptly announced via the New York Times that actually she will continue to run the company as co-CEO. The article referred to her behavior as her “management style.”
“She apologized for her management style and stepped down as chief executive. Now, she says it was a mistake to fall on her sword and is taking her job back,” Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote. (Later that day, Away’s VP of people and culture announced her resignation.)
Management style is a real thing. Leading a group of people to great work is inherently stylistic. When do you pursue and build consensus, and when are you more directive? That’s stylistic. How much do you let your team see you get excited about wins or try to stay stoic? How much time do you spend on the internal, operational bits of the business — or do you prefer to lead from an outward-facing, strategic place? Those are styles of leadership, and you have your own. Part of the adventure of management is figuring out what yours is and how to evolve it as you grow.
What was described in the Verge article is abusive. That isn’t management; it’s humiliation. Korey used public Slack channels to call her employees “brain dead.” She spoke to them like they were children. It brought to mind the time when Steve Jobs once told a room full of employees, “You should hate each other for having let each other down.” That’s not a management style. That’s someone not in control of their shit. That’s a grown adult lashing out abusively in frustration.
It’s also true, though, that the response has been deeply gendered. That’s no excuse, to be clear. When you patronize employees about what a great professional development opportunity it will be for you to suspend all paid time off, you’re being an asshole. That said, plenty of male CEOs run companies this badly and worse. Plenty of men don’t manage their shit. They…
