Corporate culture describes and governs the ways a company’s employees think, feel, and act. Sometimes the culture makes the business customer-centric (e.g., Zappos and Disney), and sometimes it focuses on employee compensation (think AIG during the Great Recession). However, no matter what the culture, it is the result of the personalities of everyone who ever worked for the business. Yes, ALL!
Who Cares?
We all should care because culture and personality affect how we function as we go about our day. Here are two examples:
- A customer calls you and expresses her frustration with your support. As you listen, you get a mental picture of her most recent journey through your organization to arrive at a satisfactory solution to her problem, hopefully. Unfortunately, so far, it hasn’t been satisfactory. In some companies, your answer would be, “Hang in there; we’re doing the best we can.” But, because your company is very concerned with your customer’s experience, you say (without much thought), “I’m sorry you are struggling to get an answer. I will transfer you to an applications engineer who I am sure can help you and I will remain on the phone until you are satisfied”. And when you reach the application engineer and explain the situation, he immediately starts working with the customer until she finally says to you, “Joe, thanks for your concern. I know I am now in good hands, so why don’t you go back to whatever it was that you were doing before I called you.”
- You are appointed to head up a multi-function team to select and implement a new software system. After a few meetings, you conclude that one functional team consists primarily of pragmatists who value decisiveness and problem-solving. The other functional team comprises largely conservative people focusing on the long term. They want to study each point until they know it will withstand any challenge. You must ensure that both perspectives are considered and that the team’s output is not a compromise (the famous camel being a horse designed by a committee) but a solution that completely satisfies both groups.
In the first example, the corporate culture is clear and well-defined. When new employees are hired, they are screened to ensure they buy into the customer-first behavior expected of everyone. If someone sneaks through the screen, he either quickly realizes he made a mistake and leaves or is moved out before he can permanently damage what the company stands for. The second example offers a different set of challenges.
Blending different personalities into a functioning team requires a leader who is:
- Perceptive
- A great communicator
- Well respected
- Goal oriented
- Patient
- A coach, not a dictator
- And much more too numerous to mention
Even with these traits, it will take the team a while to feel comfortable working together. They will initially have a sense of distrust because each group will appear to the other to be operating under a completely alien set of assumptions and objectives. The coach (you) will have to invest some quality time in bringing everyone together and enabling the best traits of each individual to stand out without the people being subjected to unnecessary criticism or pressure. If you fail, the project will fail!
When you decide you need the help, explain why and why getting the help is better than blowing up the team and starting over. If you feel you are on the brink of failing, you better bring in someone more experienced than you are in team building and dynamics. This person can be someone who works in your company or an outside coach. If you do this well, your status in the company will be enhanced.
Remember, at the end of the day, it’s all about people!
To read about culture and change, click here.
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