Has anyone noticed the new trend of what I call “apologetic” advertising? Wells Fargo, Facebook, Uber….all beautifully crafted, earnest, with a “we’re the good guys” narrative.

Here’s the problem…when widespread problems happen in a company, it’s because of culture. Yes, a leader can definitely promote a culture…but it also needs a lot of other forces at work. Here are the warning signs I’ve seen….1. Irrational advocacy for an individual. Yes, senior leaders need to be supported, but when managers are put on a pedestal as if they could do no wrong, guess what? Wrong happens. When people use someone’s name “So and So said so” and everyone jumps…uh oh.

2. Warning signs ignored: in this day of metric obsession, it’s hard to miss red flags…increases in write offs, customer complaints, employee terminations, voluntary departures of top talent. Or the opposite….they have no data….so there’s no audit trail?

3. Remediation efforts touching the customer. Someone told me they’d gotten odd requests from a bank from a Know your Customer perspective. They had been there for years. The tell? The return address was their Technology department.

4. The Management Club: everyone’s been there forever. No newcomers. Or worse, they’ve been in the same role the whole time. They can’t leave, and they know it. So what happens? You follow.  Or they hire newcomers…but they’re always on the outside.

5. Focus on only one measure. The places I’ve felt the most uncomfortable were places which were singularly focused on revenues. Not profit, not expenses…just revenues. A lot gets justified in the the name of revenue…”yes, but it’s a $10MM client….”

There were times when we used to joke “better to ask for forgiveness than permission”…but it was a joke.  We knew at a fundamental level, it wasn’t part of how we did things. There’s a reason when you don’t get permission.