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Executive Springboard helps leaders with their development and onboarding, so they can quickly make an impact and sustain that impact long-term. Helping an executive succeed can involve providing guidance on the functional issues they face. Equally important is helping them navigate the relationships and culture they encounter.
I asked for readers’ opinions on the most important questions that can be asked to understand a corporate culture. It took a little while to work through the flood of responses that I received, still longer to organize them in a coherent manner. I found eight themes emerging, with a fair amount of overlap among them. 1. General culture description Ask a number of people in an organization to describe the corporate culture. Allow them to address this open-ended question however they see fit. Consider the patterns in the responses. What elements mentioned repeatedly? Is the description consistent? Is there a difference between the reality of the culture and how they would ideally see it? Getting more granular, how is culture taught? Is it part of any corporate onboarding program? Is there corporate folklore that tell stories of the organization’s heroes and their achievements? How do their accomplishments match up with the company’s values? 2. Behavioral norms Consider the behavior of the CEO and how it acts as a model for the organization. Does the CEO interact daily with people “down the line,” for example, with customer service reps or administrative assistants? Does the CEO know anything personal about these people, beyond their role in the company? How much is the CEO seen or heard? Do they stay in headquarters, or are they often seen in branches, plants or customers’ offices? How much does the organization expect people to collaborate? Does the employee base frequently see leaders interacting, or do they just manage their own spheres of influence? Is the organization one where everybody feels like they have skin in the game, or do leaders micro-manage employees? It was felt that bosses’ overreach at the expense of employee autonomy can diminish morale and kill creativity. What happens when strong performance comes at the expense of corporate values? How are exceptions to the rules tolerated? Are policies and procedures standardized and enforced? Would behavior that is unacceptable for the finance function be allowed among the sales team? Are there any taboos… dress code, work hours, working from home, etc.? Are there expectations about behavior that extend beyond the workplace (e.g., social media use, personal habits?) 3. Performance What is the performance review process? Is it formal or informal? Frequent, annual or irregular? Do you force a “grading curve,” or do you allow all to be strong performers with areas for growth (In Minnesota, we call this The Prairie Home Companion Curve, where everybody is above average!) How do you react to major and minor mistakes? Are there disciplinary consequences? How does this impact employees’ willingness to give bad news and own up to their responsibility? Does the organization forgive and move on? Are there ways of gaining institutional learning from mistakes? How does the company recognize, reward or celebrate success? What is measured and how are successes rewarded? Are the metrics long- or short-term? Is there a focus on revenue, profit, customer retention, cost savings or other factors? Is there consistency in what is measured, or might strong performance that was rewarded last year be ignored this year? How often are the successes that are acknowledged individual rather than collective? In other words, does the culture allow people to be singled out for their achievements? 4. Power Where does the power reside? Within the C-suite, are all people equal, or is there an inner circle? If power at the top is unevenly distributed, is this reflected more broadly throughout the organization? Is this a result of personality, tenure, competence or a strategic consideration? Who owns the P&L? Does control of the P&L impact how influence works? Is this simple or matrixed? How is power most often used by those with power towards those without? Is it enabling? Abusive? How does the organization’s immune system manifest itself? In the face of somebody who might be challenging the status quo, what are the common forms of resistance? 5. Diversity and Inclusion Does the organization reflect diversity, or is it a “good boy network?” Can you demonstrate times when you have engaged in opportunities to promote diversity and inclusion of people or thought leadership? Does the employee base resemble the customer base? What challenges, if any, does the company face in making employees feel included? As Professor Michael Gaffley of Nova Southeastern University recently told me, “Diversity is about counting numbers. Inclusion is about making numbers count.” How does the company encourage mixing of different people, perspectives and experience? How does leadership learn from younger employees about new trends in the marketplace? How does the institutional knowledge of long-tenured employees be memorialized when they retire? How do you walk the tightrope of encouraging different ways of thinking while benefiting from behavior that conforms to a set of agreed-upon values? And in a surprising corollary (and closely tied to behavior norms and performance), what is the organization’s tolerance for risk? Is conformity highly rewarded, or do people get ahead by taking chances and succeeding? Do extraordinary efforts that fail garner praise or punishment? 6. Decision-making and communication How are decisions made? How much will senior leadership delegate? What are signoff levels? Does a plan cascade down or is it built bottom-up? How inclusive is the process for capex, product development and annual budget-setting? Under what situations will the company invest time and money to develop evidence-based decisions? When decisions are made, how are the communicated? Does the company run on PowerPoint? Xcel? Email? Conversation? Does technology allow remote employees to be vital parts of decision-making? If a manager represents their team in a proposal that is rejected, how do they report the decision to their team? What responsibility to they have to reflect the consensus of the deciding group? How often do employees hear from senior executives? What media are used? What message is given? Would the majority of employees be able to state strategic priorities? 7. Conflict resolution What and where are the common areas of conflict? Are these based on unmatched objectives between stakeholders? Incentives that are not aligned? Disagreement on expected outcomes? Politics? How do issues get resolved? Is consensus sought? Are they made by decree or through an arbiter? How often does resolution result in a “win-win” situation? In one side backing down, in face of evidence it had not considered before? In one side backing down for reasons that were not data-driven? What is an example of a conflict faced within a department? Of a conflict between two functions or business units? How were these resolved? How much of the CEO’s job is deciding between two opposing viewpoints that cannot be resolved by themselves? 8. Vision and Mission What does the company want to be known for in 3-5 years? What terms define that vision? Are they financial? In customer terms? Employee-focused? Shareholders? Other stakeholder groups? Where did the vision come from? Who developed it and through what process? Why does the company exist? What is its mission? What motivates people to come to work in the morning? How well does it relate to the whole business? Are there large parts of the company that seem to be out of scope, and how are they managed? How well is the vision and mission internalized by employees? Can they tell you what the vision and mission of the company are? Do they find them compelling and achievable? Are they committed to accomplish them? My initial intention was to provide a tight set of questions to get at the essence of a company’s culture. That’s what we try to do in a short conversation with corporate leadership prior to a mentoring engagement. But I was impressed with the passion and insights provided by dozens of responses. You had a lot to say about what’s important to capture in corporate culture. This became a sprawling exercise that fleshed out a very squishy topic. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
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It’s always a challenge to get your footing when you are in a new job. It can be just as difficult when your job changes because a new boss is redefining your role.
An executive may easily be out of sync with their new CEO. Performance that once met expectations is no longer adequate. The new boss is unclear about their agenda and whether this executive fit in. There is a new relationship to forge. There is a new culture being built out of unspoken rules. The CEO might bring with them people who have worked with them before. Nobody knows whether this is the first step in a full housecleaning or not. Sometimes, a new CEO has their own plan in mind, and it won’t include the leadership team that’s still in place from the previous regime. More often, a new CEO will recognize that there is benefit derived from having people who know how things work in an organization and can help to advance an agenda for change. The following seven suggestions are steps to take early in this new relationship. Don’t take criticism of how things previously were done personally. A boss’s undiplomatic assessment of past strategy is not a reflection on your competence. Calling the previous plan stupid does not imply that they mean YOU are stupid. Commit to the new boss’s success. A new boss brings with them a new direction. You may have been a critical part of the old direction. That doesn’t preclude you from being part of a new direction. You must decide whether you are wedded to a strategy that is about to change or whether you can buy into a new strategy. If you can’t be part of the change, leave. Resistance is futile and self-destructive. An early conversation should center around the boss's vision and priorities, and how you can contribute to their activation. Context is important, but make sure your explanation of potential obstacles is not perceived as opposition to the new direction. Seek clarity in your role in delivering change. The answer to “how can I help” may seem too obvious to ask. Ask anyway. It shows that you are on board. And it might also lead to surprising answers. Clarify your decision rights. Executive Springboard calls these “Do-Tell-Ask.” What are the things you can do without informing the boss? What do they want to kept in the loop on, once you’ve acted? When do you need their permission to act? It may be hard to get granular on this, but you can establish a language that helps de-escalate potential conflicts: “I’m sorry, I thought this was a “tell,” and you see this as an “ask.” Understand the boss’s communication preferences. Some have an open-door policy. Some have no meetings longer than 30 minutes. They may frequently reach out to your subordinates without including you. They may send out weekly voicemail messages to all staff. Most people can articulate their communications style better than they can define their leadership style. Avoid trying to impress, whine or petition. It’s not about you; it’s about your boss. If you want to stand out, try not bringing your own agenda to the forefront. Instead, limit status reporting to 5 minutes, share successes, seek to understand their direction and engage in two-way feedback early on, if invited to do so. In other words, be a grownup. Ask for direction when you are lost or when your decision rights discussion says it’s needed. Besides that, do your job and let your boss do theirs. Build a personal relationship incrementally. Ask them to lunch early on. Be aware that they are experiencing more disruption than you are. They are counting on you. Your authenticity is the quickest path to developing trust. |
AuthorExecutive Springboard President Steve Moss shares learning from years as an executive and a mentor. Archives
July 2024
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