Now, as the Captain, one of the most important things you must do is set the tone.
Back when I was PIC, I always included this in the preflight brief: "I run checklists slow, I taxi slow, and I fly slow. If anything ever happens to me, I want everyone to say, 'Wasn't that the guy that was so slow?' " A much better reputation to have than the opposite.
On the other hand, I was a young DC10 F/O at an ACMI carrier when we showed up at 4 am for a departure from Chicago to Basel. The departure had already slipped 4 hours. The captain said, "I want to be starting engines at 5am."
Well, there were maintenance logbook issues to be resolved, and more fuel to be put on, and at 5 am we were nowhere near ready.
The PIC had an absolute sh!t-fit, screaming that we were late, we were supposed to be out at 5, what the hell was wrong with us. I let him rant for awhile then pointed out meekly that the 5 am thing was SELF-IMPOSED, that obviously neither the company nor the customer gave a wet slap about an on-time departure, that all this tension just makes it worse.
Thing was, he was a good guy and a great pilot otherwise. I think alot about that flight.....