Amen to this. Years ago I did a contract for a company that was very pro-heroism. Every single promotion email I saw had some anecdote about how the person had, say, stayed at the office multiple nights in a row to save an in-trouble project.
You know what? Every project needed heroics just to get done on time because the place was profoundly fucked up. And each round of heroics left the code in poorer and poorer shape, demanding more heroics next time. Instead of doing a truly brave thing, like telling executives that a schedule was absurd and the team needed more time to do it right, people did the cowardly thing and said, "three bags full sir" to every absurd request.
And that was the right choice for promotion, because everybody higher up had succeeded by heroics.
You know what? Every project needed heroics just to get done on time because the place was profoundly fucked up. And each round of heroics left the code in poorer and poorer shape, demanding more heroics next time. Instead of doing a truly brave thing, like telling executives that a schedule was absurd and the team needed more time to do it right, people did the cowardly thing and said, "three bags full sir" to every absurd request.
And that was the right choice for promotion, because everybody higher up had succeeded by heroics.