There is a pattern and it has nothing to do with how hard the author worked or the CEO.
> No one knew what I was doing, and I couldn’t explain why I was doing it when asked.
> I had shut down. Even as we were meeting, I was obsessively thinking about the change
> I literally paid zero attention. In my righteous anger I was unreachable.
The common thread is communication; specifically the lack of it. These quotes are huge red flags.
The CEO saw a problem and clearly communicated it -- you've gotten results but cannot explain how or why, and that isn't good enough going forward. The author even had a chance (real or not) to act on this feedback by way of a warning and a coach. Instead of embracing and acting on clear feedback from his new boss, he panicked and shut down; allowing one negative interaction to throw his entire sense of self into disarray. This is strong evidence that indeed they were likely not the right candidate for the position as the company grew.
The CEO saw a problem and clearly communicated it -- you've gotten results but cannot explain how or why, and that isn't good enough going forward
That is clearly the CEO's point of view in this case, but it's a view I find rather perplexing. It leaves no room for intuition and good judgement. Potentially, it can force people to try and write down explanations of stuff they are not actually confident about, which just end up confusing whoever comes next.
Once you grow past Dunbar's number you can no longer rely on individual intuition and good judgement alone, you need higher level communication and alignment around strategy because there is simply not enough interpersonal bandwidth to communicate otherwise. Of course you want everyone to continue using judgement, but the leadership needs to go the extra mile to project a vision and strategy across the org.
You can argue over whether the CEO was right or wrong in this case, but at the end of the day it's the CEO's job to make these calls.
> No one knew what I was doing, and I couldn’t explain why I was doing it when asked.
> I had shut down. Even as we were meeting, I was obsessively thinking about the change
> I literally paid zero attention. In my righteous anger I was unreachable.
The common thread is communication; specifically the lack of it. These quotes are huge red flags.
The CEO saw a problem and clearly communicated it -- you've gotten results but cannot explain how or why, and that isn't good enough going forward. The author even had a chance (real or not) to act on this feedback by way of a warning and a coach. Instead of embracing and acting on clear feedback from his new boss, he panicked and shut down; allowing one negative interaction to throw his entire sense of self into disarray. This is strong evidence that indeed they were likely not the right candidate for the position as the company grew.