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Workplace Culture
August 10, 2020
Understanding your workplace culture is a major step in the right direction for workplace happiness, and working within your zone of genius vs your zone of competence. But what really is workplace culture?
The word "culture" derives from a French term, which in turn derives from the Latin "colere", which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture.
The workplace is not just a place for you to come and work, but it should also be a great place for you to grow and learn. When we refer to workplace culture, this could be referring to the workplace language used, attitudes at work, values and the way people interact. Did you know that workplaces generally have one of four different types of work culture? This is important because sometimes this internal culture is not a match for your own preferences and you could, in fact, be clashing with the internal culture from day one.
A basic overview of the four types are:
Clan Culture:
is like one big family where everyone does things collaboratively and upholds similar commitment levels.
The Hierarchy Culture:
A more formal and very structured working culture with strict policies and procedures on the way things need to be done.
The Market Culture:
based around winning and achieving set goals and beating rivals, so strategies and measures are all based around meeting those goals and sales targets.
And the Adhocracy Culture: is based around everyone being quite entrepreneurial and everyone is constantly looking for new strategies to improve the business.
Understanding this, could you see that, say you came from a background, for example, in defence, and you started your career loving the set structure where everyone followed policies and procedures, and everyone knew their place and who their reporting officer was, then you moved into an Adhocracy culture which is about thinking outside the box and creating new ways, with most people on the same level, that you may struggle to assimilate with that culture and feel that you might not be “clicking” with the job? Your skills could match up to the job duties yet there would be a misalignment with the workplace environment (culture) and you may not thrive there.
If you're the owner or manager of a business understanding the type of your internal culture is a powerful way to employ. If you can include more about the culture of your business in the job advertisement then you could attract better applicants who are a better match to the synergy of your team.
Hiring for a cultural fit is also, in my opinion, how you get better team dynamics and employee retention (plus fewer costs on rehiring and firming the wrong team member). However, employee retention starts with first being able to clearly articulate what the organisational culture is. What are the aligned values, beliefs, behaviours and experiences that make up the organisation's environment?
In a recent study conducted by the University of Iowa, revealed that employees who fit well with their organisation, coworkers, and supervisor had better job satisfaction, were more likely to remain with their organisation and showed superior job performance. This is especially important when the organisation is facing the inevitable changes, the volatility we are experiencing with all the unknowns of 2020. If you can build a strong team with shared values they are more nimble and can adapt more readily.
So before you look to apply for a certain job or hire the next team member I highly recommend you get a cultural audit done or do some investigating on what your “Real” business culture is and if you don’t know or can’t clearly define it then this is something I can help you with.
We've put together a list of some of our favourite reads when it comes to leadership, career growth and getting the best out of your team. This list is not extensive yet a great start to look back on some new and old teachings. The best part with most of these listed, they are short yet powerful reads and now with the fantastic introduction of Audible books you can now download these books and listen to them in the car or on the way to work (turn your dead time into learning time). Of course, once you've had a read of these books let us know what you thought of them by sending us a quick email OR share with us one of your favourite leadership books for us to add to the list.
3 million Aussies are planning on making major career moves on the back end of the pandemic.
If there's a legacy I'd like to leave before I shuffle off my mortal coil, it's having empowered others to become better leaders. And that brings me to the topic of this blog – defining what makes a great leader. I've encountered many of them in my travels. People doing amazing work, inspiring others and creating world-class teams working towards a common goal, everyone self-driven and proactive. Alas, it is not always like this! All too often I've been hired to find out why organisations are not working effectively; why there are barriers and friction, and nobody can quite put their finger on the cause. In most instances, the problems started at the top – and you can imagine how popular that made me, pointing out that the people who'd hired me to fix their dysfunctional teams were the ones that needed my attention first.
Take a good, hard look at what your business was doing before COVID-19. Was it the best business model? And even if it was, is it going to be a workable model after the recovery? Nows your opportunity to review, realign and reset.
Go back to a job that you WANT to return to, not that you HAVE to return to. This is exactly the type of Personal Development you should be doing in preparation for the COVID-19 recovery – development on yourself, looking at all the options and getting ready for change!
leaders with the strongest teams are playing a different game now thanks to COVID-19. Your teams are at home, playing individually, spread far and wide, perhaps scared and uncertain of their future, distractions at every turn. How can you help them?