I wasn't trying to write a business book but what you wrote is fine usually for the senior level employees that get how business works and probably took the job with the understanding of the weight of their position. However you will also have fickle entry/low/mid level employees that don't have the maturity to accept the realities of the business world.

> However you will also have fickle entry/low/mid level employees

You need to read that sentence again. Your comments are very revealing about you and not about CTO level work as you are imagining.

My comments are very revealing about the reality of the work world at mediocre aka most companies.

If you get a big enough group of people there are going to be some people with machiavellian tendencies or at least some that read bad advice on the internet about how to get ahead at work and try to apply it with clumsy gusto. You will look like a real fool to your boss the CEO if you are giving information to these type of people and they try to use it for their benefit.

I may be painting too dark a picture due to the focus the comments have on a single sentence. Overall I had good relationships with the vast majority of people that worked for me. I know this because I still have contact with most of them even though we have almost no chance of ever working together again. You are deluding yourself if you think there are no bad apples out there or that people having problems in their personal life may try to pull manipulation at work to get ahead or however they see may solve their problems.

> You are deluding yourself if you think there are no bad apples out ther

Please don't put words into my mouth.

Compulsive liars cannot change their habits.

And gasp you may have to reward your worker because they truly are that valuable instead of reaping all the benefit for the cto.

Thats mostly a CEO trait. Remember CTO,CFO,COO,CIO, ect are all just jobs. You ultimately report to the CEO, whom ultimately reports to the investors,stakeholders, capital partners, b2b relationships and so on.

For the record I gave 100% of bonuses I had awarded to my staff and 0% to myself the entire tenure.

Who awards bonuses to themselves?!