6 Ways Successful People Stretch Their Comfort Zones

Truly great entrepreneurs aren't satisfied with comfort. Pushing their own limits is how they get to greatness.

 By Marla Tabaka

Everyone has a so-called “comfort zone.” You know what I’m talking about: that mental space you live in where there are boundaries and you feel a sense of emotional security with your work and your decision making.

What distinguishes successful people from everyone else is what they do with their comfort zone. There are those who are perfectly happy staying warm and cozy in this safe box they’ve built; and then are those who constantly push and test the limits.

You already know which person goes on to be a successful entrepreneur

Now I’m not suggesting that the comfort zone is a bad thing. It’s there for a reason: to protect us. Otherwise we all may be jumping off cliffs and out of airplanes. It also protects us from taking on more stress and anxiety than we are equipped to deal with. But eventually the familiar routine of your comfort zone will keep you from learning, and experiencing new things that are potentially good for us. It is also likely to prevent you from building a thriving business.

So how do you know when your comfort zone is holding you back? Here are a few things you may notice:

·         Excessive stress

·         Boredom

·         Self-criticism

·         Envy

·         Anxiety about your situation

·         Excuses–lots of them!

·         A stagnant, or failing, business

Any of those sound familiar? It’s time for a stretch. Try these baby steps and watch your world grow.

Accept that you are less than perfect.

Are you afraid of what others may think, or of letting someone down? Usually the “rules” we create around how to behave so others will accept us are nothing but self-imposed, ridiculously high standards. Get a little crazy. Do something fun, like dance in the department store (my kids were mortified) or sing at karaoke. Break the illusion of perfection and join the rest of us in the human race.

Break the fear barrier.

So what are you really afraid of? Make a list. Include everything, from fear of spiders to fear of financial devastation. Now make a plan to face your fears one at a time. Begin small. If you have a phobia, for instance, reach out for help to eliminate it. The Emotional Freedom Techniques has an amazing track record of curing phobias. Knock these fears off your list one at a time and celebrate each success.

Get a partner.

There are some things that just aren’t meant to be done alone. For over two years, I’ve had a dream to produce and present an empowering women’s conference. But it remained a dream and nothing more. Then one day my coach said to me, “that’s just not something you take on all by yourself,” and I finally got it. I needed a partner in this endeavor. Sure enough, I found someone within a week and “Make It Happen” is happening this September. It’s amazing how much fun it is to create and I am certainly stretching the limits of my comfort zone. But since I’m no longer alone in this little adventure, I still feel safe (mostly).

(MORE: 5 Negotiation Tips From Steve Jobs)

Is there something you want to do that just shouldn’t be done alone? Find a buddy and make it happen.

Detach and accept.

Your comfort zone keeps you in a very predictable space: You usually know exactly what’s going to happen. A fear of the unknown will keep you stuck forever. So the trick here is to let go of your expectations and accept the results of your actions. Take risks in measured amounts. If you are designing a new consulting program or rolling out a new product, do it in small bits. Don’t go gangbusters and risk losing it all. Gamble with something you are willing to lose. These losses will teach you something, such as how to make the product better or market it differently. Look forward to the outcome, whatever it is.

Hang out with someone different.

Often we choose our friends and peers based on what we have in common. Instead, try to find someone who’s crazier than you. Choosing the company of people who go farther out on the limb will bring out your adventurous side. Be open-minded and observe the benefits of being more daring.

Imagine your success.

If you spend a few minutes each day visualizing your success you will become more willing to take the risks associated with it. Give your brain a break and daydream a bit. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Now go ahead and break those silly rules.

Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

Sydney Finkelstein, the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, published “Why Smart Executives Fail” 8 years ago.
In it, he shared some of his research on what over 50 former high-flying companies – like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Rubbermaid, and Schwinn – did to become complete failures.  It turns out that the senior executives at the companies all had 7 Habits in common.  Finkelstein calls them the Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives.
These traits can be found in the leaders of current failures like Research In Motion (RIMM), but they should be early-warning signs (cautionary tales) to currently unbeatable firms like Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Amazon.com (AMZN).  Here are the habits, as Finkelstein described in a 2004 article:
Habit # 1:  They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environmentThis first habit may be the most insidious, since it appears to be highly desirable.  Shouldn’t a company try to dominate its business environment, shape thefuture of its markets and set the pace within them?  Yes,but there’s a catch.  Unlike successful leaders, failed leaders who never question their dominance fail torealize they are at the mercy of changing circumstances.They vastly overestimate the extent to which they actually control events and vastly underestimate the role of chance and circumstance in their success.
CEOs who fall prey to this belief suffer from the illusion of personal pre-eminence: Like certain film directors, they see themselves as the auteurs of their companies.  As far as they’re concerned, everyone else in the company is there to execute their personal visionfor the company.  Samsung’s CEO Kun-Hee Lee was so successful with electronics that he thought he could repeat this success with automobiles.  He invested $5 billion in an already oversaturated auto market.  Why? There was no business case.  Lee simply loved cars and had dreamed of being in the auto business.
Warning Sign for #1:  A lack of respectHabit #2:  They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interestsLike the first habit, this one seems innocuous, perhaps even beneficial.  We want business leaders to be completely committed to their companies, with their interests tightly aligned with those of the company.  But digging deeper, you find that failed executives weren’t identifying too little with the company, but rather too much.  Instead of treating companies as enterprises that they needed to nurture, failed leaders treated them as extensions of themselves.  And with that, a “private empire” mentality took hold.
CEOs who possess this outlook often use their companies to carry out personal ambitions.  The most slippery slope of all for these executives is their tendency to use corporate funds for personal reasons.  CEOs who have a long or impressive track record may come to feel that they’ve made so much money for the company that the expenditures they make on themselves, even if extravagant, are trivial by comparison.  This twisted logic seems to have been one of the factors that shaped the behavior of Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco.  His pride in his company and his pride in his own extravagance seem to have reinforced each other.  This is why he could sound so sincere making speeches about ethics while using corporate funds for personal purposes. Being the CEO of a sizable corporation today is probably the closest thing to being king of your own country, and that’s a dangerous title to assume.
Warning Sign for #2: A question of characterHabit #3:  They think they have all the answersHere’s the image of executive competence that we’ve been taught to admire for decades: a dynamic leader making a dozen decisions a minute, dealing with many crises simultaneously, and taking only seconds to size up situations that have stumped everyone else for days. The problem with this picture is that it’s a fraud. Leaders who are invariably crisp and decisive tend to settle issues so quickly they have no opportunity to grasp the ramifications. Worse, because these leaders need to feel they have all the answers, they aren’t open to learning new ones.
CEO Wolfgang Schmitt of Rubbermaid was fond of demonstrating his ability to sort out difficult issues in a flash. A former colleague remembers that under Schmitt,” the   joke   went, ‘Wolf  knows everything about everything.’  In one discussion, where we were talking about a particularly complex acquisition we made in Europe, Wolf, without hearing different points of view, just said, ‘Well, this is what we are going to do.’”  Leaders who need to have all the answers shut out other points of view. When your company or organization is run by someone like this, you’d better hope the answers he comes up with are going to be the right ones.  At Rubbermaid they weren’t.  The company went from being Fortune’s most admired company in America in1993 to being acquired by the conglomerate Newell a few years later.
Warning Sign for #3:  A leader without followersHabit #4:  They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind themCEOs who think their job is to instill belief in their vision also think that it is their job to get everyone to buy into it.  Anyone who doesn’t rally to the cause is undermining the vision.  Hesitant managers have a choice: Get with the plan or leave.The problem with this approach is that it’s both unnecessary and destructive. CEOs don’t need to have everyone unanimously endorse their vision to have it carried out successfully.  In fact, by eliminating all dissenting and contrasting viewpoints, destructive CEOs cut themselves off from their best chance of seeing and correcting problems as they arise.  Sometimes CEOs who seek to stifle dissent only drive it underground. Once this happens, the entire organization falters.  At Mattel, Jill Barad removed her senior lieutenants if she thought they harbored serious reservations about the way that she was running things.  Schmitt created such a threatening atmosphere at Rubbermaid that firings were often unnecessary.  When new executives realized that they’d get no support from the CEO, many of them left almost as fast as they’d come on board.  Eventually, these CEOs had everyone on their staff completely behind them. But where they were headed was toward disaster.  And no one was left to warn them.Warning Sign for #4:  Executive departuresHabit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company imageYou know these CEOs: high-profile executives whoare constantly in the public eye.  The problem is that amid all the media frenzy and accolades, these leaders’ management efforts become shallow and ineffective. Instead of actually accomplishing things, they often settle for the appearance of accomplishing things.Behind these media darlings is a simple fact of executive life: CEOs don’t achieve a high level of media attention without devoting themselves assiduously to public relations.  When CEOs are obsessed with their image, they have little time for operational details. Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski sometimes intervened in remarkably minor matters, but left most of  the company’s day-to-day operations unsupervised.As a final negative twist, when CEOs make the company’s image their top priority, they run the risk of using financial-reporting practices to promote that image.  Instead of treating their financial accounts as a control tool, they treat them as a public-relations tool. The creative accounting that was apparently practiced by such executives as Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling or Tyco’sKozlowski is as much or more an attempt to promote the company’s image as it is to deceive the public: In their eyes, everything that the company does is public relations.Warning Sign of #5:  Blatant attention-seekingHabit #6: They underestimate obstaclesPart of the allure of being a CEO is the opportunity to espouse a vision. Yet, when CEOs become so enamored of their vision, they often overlook or underestimate the difficulty of actually getting there.  And when it turns out that the obstacles they casually waved aside are more troublesome than they anticipated, these CEO have a habit of plunging full-steam into the abyss.  For example, when Webvan’s core business was racking up huge losses, CEO George Shaheen was busy expanding those operations at an awesome rate.Why don’t CEOs in this situation re-evaluate their course of action, or at least hold back for a while until it becomes clearer whether their policies will work?  Some feel an enormous need to be right in every important decision they make, because if they admit to being fallible, their position as CEO might seem precarious. Once a CEO admits that he or she made the wrong call, there will always be people who say the CEO wasn’t up to the job.  These unrealistic expectations make it exceedingly hard for a CEO to pull back from any chosen course of action, which not surprisingly causes them to push that much harder.  That’s why leaders at Iridium and Motorola (MMI) kept investing billions of dollars to launch satellites even after it had become apparent that land-based cellphones were a better alternative.Warning Sign of #6:  Excessive hypeHabit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the pastMany CEOs on their way to becoming spectacularly unsuccessful accelerate their company’s decline by reverting to what they regard as tried-and-true methods. In their desire to make the most of what they regard as their core strengths, they cling to a static business model.They insist on providing a product to a market that no longer exists, or they fail to consider innovations in areas other than those that made the company successful in the past. Instead of considering a range of options that fit new circumstances, they use their own careers as the only point of reference and do the things that made them successful in the past.  For example, when Jill Barad was trying to promote educational software at Mattel,she used the promotional techniques that had been effective for her when she was promoting Barbie dolls, despite the fact that software is not distributed or bought the way dolls are.Frequently, CEOs who fall prey to this habit owe their careers to some “defining moment,” a critical decision or policy choice that resulted in their most notable success.  It’s usually the one thing that they’re most known for and the thing that gets them all of their subsequent jobs.  The problem is that after people have had the experience of that defining moment, if they become the CEO of a large company, they allow their defining moment to define the company as well – no matter how unrealistic it has become.Warning Sign of #7:  Constantly referring to what worked in the pastThe bottom line: If you exhibit several of these traits, now is the time to stamp them out from your repertoire.  If your boss or several senior executives at your company exhibit several of these traits, now is the time to start looking for a new job.

This Article was published in 2012 in Forbes.com . Link provided below.

 - http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/02/the-seven-habits-of-spectacularly-unsuccessful-executives/

Everyone needs a Coach!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a7qnTMvw92U

This Link conveys & establishes that " Everyone needs a coach"...

Please have a Look

Manager as a Coach – Coaching Situations

 It was a cold foggy evening in Chandigarh on 31^st Dec, 1998. I was in office. I was served an official order from High court of a state at almost 6 pm. This High Court order gave us ( my company) directions to act in a particular manner. It meant that our Pre decided action intended in early hours of 1^st Jan 1999, based on another Superior Court Order, cannot be executed.

By this time, people had started leaving office, eagerly looking forward to a officially sponsored fun-filled evening. In fact I was also supposed to attend the same party with family. Wishing New Year to others, I also left for home.

At 7 pm reached home too. I had no option now but to read, interpret papers and then take a final call on going ahead. Acting on new order served, meant that we are in contempt of other court order, higher court. It was after good 2 hours of reading, say around 930 pm, I called my General Manager. It was a call of a life time for me. Over the next 2 hours I kept answering his questions. All open ended questions. He asked me initially on what needs to be done on 1^st Jan morning.  He did not share or indicate his agreement with my views, instead kept asking me a series of questions.

My family meanwhile left for party, while I was still on phone. It was around 1130 pm and I almost felt exasperated with my GM not being sensitive to need to validate my decision quickly. Finally he said that let us go ahead with what you consider as appropriate and we will face consequences, if any.

I kept the phone and called my officer at Shimla and asked him to go ahead with our original intended action, irrespective of High Court order.

I rushed to the party & enjoyed myself with family and friends.

On 7^th January, I met my GM in his office at Delhi. I pointedly (with a bit of humour) asked him about the long call on 31^st Dec as to why he took so long and asked me so many questions. In any case he finally agreed with my view. He could have agreed and we would have been free in few minutes to enjoy our respective evenings.

He smiled.

I realized later that he had used those 2 hours to coach me in that situation. All his questions made me think hard. His questions helped me share my thought process and helped me get few more insights. New insights helped me fine tune my action substantially.  And finally when I ended the call that night, I felt completely responsible & accountable for the decision and its consequences. So when decision went right, I was elated.

I am reminded of this incident almost 15 years back, as someone asked me to share a practical example of coaching. This to my mind is a perfect example of being coached in situation. In today’s world arguments of targets / timelines, stakeholder pressures are extended by managers to defend that there is not enough time or situations to coach people. This situation that I have narrated is an example of most inappropriate time, event and with both time and stakeholder pressures. Still someone felt I need to be coached.

The learning which is now validated many years later is that coaching situations can be sensed by Manager Coach only when the agenda is team member (Coachee). Whenever Manager overlooks a situation perfect for coaching, blaming time and stakeholder pressures, he is driving his own agenda. My own experience suggests that we can coach our team members as long as we think about them, their development and growth.

So next time when you are rushing in to provide answers and solutions to your team members, think hard. Think of them. It will be easy. Believe me.

Coaching in Action

Coaching intervention at various levels of organization would need to be tailored based on maturity & responsibility levels of staff (coachee) levels. There are enough and more situations that provide an opportunity to coach our team members. When applied, coaching is:

• Holding a conversation and engaging in dialogue. Coaching is not about telling the staff member what to do. Rather it is about encouraging them to reflect and learn. As adult learners, we generally like to create our own solutions rather than be told what to do.

• Collaborative. Coaching is about brainstorming issues together. Share your experiences of similar situations. Jointly identify possible solutions to problems.

• Focussed on achieving outcomes. You want the staff member to leave your meeting with a course of action to take. Look for specificity and certainty.

• Present and future-oriented, with consideration given to the past where appropriate. When we dwell on the past and a problem, the problem often ‘gets bigger’. If we focus on the way forward and a solution to the problem, the problem becomes more manageable and we have the energy to deal with it.

• Challenging to the individual, in a positive way. Ask open-ended questions of the staff member to encourage them to reflect on the issue or situation and think through the possible options. This is your opportunity to enable the staff member to see the situation differently, to embrace a different way of dealing with it, and potentially to change their approach or behaviour.

• Focused on the staff member. Your aim is to focus on their needs and learning requirements as well as facilitating ways for them to find the answers (rather than you providing the answers or directing). You want the staff member to take ownership of the problem and to take action to solve it. From this they learn and are more likely to develop capacity to find solutions to problems independently.

• Dependent on high quality feedback. Positive feedback builds self-confidence and makes people want to take more action. Review how implementation of the action plan went. Identify learning’s. Celebrate successes.

• Encouraging the individuals to achieve. We learn better when we discover for ourselves. Enable your staff to ‘extend’ themselves and remember ‘blame’ has no place in coaching!

To be effective, coaching depends on a positive relationship between the Manager-Coach and staff member being coached. The relationship needs to be based on trust - where the staff member knows he/she can come to you and brainstorm issues in a supportive environment and leave with encouragement and your support to take action on a chosen solution.

Do your team members feel this? Much before a manager attempts to coach , he needs to think himself, new. Rewire himself. Old wiring is virtually impossible to be deleted or erased. Begin.

Portability

Very recently came the concept of portability in Mobile telephony. It was to provide the customer the choice of migrating, in case he has service issues with his service provider. Customer retains his identity, his unique number.
I used this service few days back. No sooner, my application got registered with my next service provider; I got a call from my old service provider, seeking reasons for my leaving. The call from service rep. was apologetic with promises of improving all issues that I faced over next 7 days. I guess these promises & apologies were too late. I am now waiting for activation of same number with new provider now.
This experience set me thinking.
The concept of portability has existed for much longer. Employees make choices when they are not happy with their current organization. They look out for opportunities and change jobs to new organizations. That’s employee portability. His perspective. Organization perspective, call it attrition. Some organizations use the more positive term – Retention. Employee is a customer too for the organization. There is concept of internal customer discussed for a long time now.
Who owns the customer / employee after he / she has been acquired by the company? Are there any lessons to be learnt?
Yes of course. In the call I had from service provider, he only made promises to improve the experience, which was too late as I had already got my application submitted (akin to putting in resignation). The caller should have asked me what are those things which we need to improve apart from your reasons shared. He did not do so. He let go of an opportunity to get feedback and perhaps feed it into organization to be able to proactively improve services & retain more customers.
Portability / Attrition can be predicted or forecasted. If it can be, why do organizations and businesses do not consider proactive actions.
Like in case of customer it is fair to ask a question, who owns the employee? Is it HR? Is it the Function Head? Is the ownership shared by HR & Concerned Business/ Function? There are arguments for each of these. The one argument that I have seen most organization throw up to preclude any discussion when an employee quits is:
“Employees do not leave companies they leave their Managers”
To be fair, research does show & prove that, it is one of the top reasons among others, for people to quit jobs. When it happens more often, does it not make the responsibility to treat & go about resolving the challenge? Most often it is seen that, as soon as this argument is put forward, out goes the accountability and pain of Top Management & HR. Abandoning. My guess is that most senior employees in organization extend conveniently this argument to cover up deficiencies related to company culture, talent management etc.
Organizations would do well when they conduct a follow up analysis to highlight managers who have contributed to the highest or critical attrition. (High_PO). I have worked with few organizations and have talked to innumerable professionals but none have confirmed that any Manager was asked to leave because he had the highest attrition in his team.
Organizations need to truly acknowledge attrition (Employee portability) only then the perspectives will change. Till then attrition as a performance indicator is not owned by any. It is akin to orphaning the employee. Literally. So if & when an employee resigns / quits no one sheds a tear. No one owns him. He becomes a statistic. And then again we hear. People leave managers not companies. Think about it from the perspective of organizations facing high attrition at almost 25-30%. Such high attrition means that virtually all the Managers in the companies are to be blamed. Collectively these Managers make an organization.
Organizations now seem to resolving the attrition problem by analysing data as Voluntary and Involuntary Attrition.  That’s reduces the pain and effort a bit. To further distance the issue from HR ,  there is a thought process to measure attrition as only Critical Resignations % (people who have to be retained / have High PO).

 It seems an admittance that HR community did not understand the concept well and measures it all wrong. They have now redefined measurement rather than addressing the issues itself. Most organizations don’t seem to acknowledge it. At their own peril. 

Transforming Manager as Manager Coach

I am quite confident that by the time I finish writing this blog article, there will be new insights for myself and perhaps some readers too. These insights well could well confirm my doubt or perhaps give me some hope and answer on what it takes to transform managers of today to be manager -coaches. I believe it is awareness and understanding.

There seems to be an inherent contradiction between these two. Managing and coaching are two different activities. One is about directing & other has to be about teaching. Managing is all about telling, directing, authority, immediate needs, and a specific outcome. Coaching involves exploring, facilitating, partnership, long-term improvement, and many possible outcomes.

The manager focuses primarily on strategy and managing the flow of the work. He decides who does what.  He allocates the work based on role & competencies. Manager goes about providing resources and ensuring outcomes.

 How many times have we heard a Manager almost shouting on phone to his sales guy on 25^th of the month “I don’t know how you do it, but I want you to achieve your target by end of month” . The poor sales guy has no idea how to do it but is shut up by his manager who is not willing to understand that probably this person needs new ideas to get the numbers.

In my experience with Managers at senior level, I have often heard that coaching team members is time intensive while we grapple with issues and challenges that have to be resolved on yesterday basis. The Tyranny of Urgent. This explains their prescriptive style of management. Managers start believing that there job is to provide answer. In all situations & all the time. I am reminded of a senior manager who even shared that as soon as his subordinate starts speaking, he is already giving him back instructions on what is to be done. To be fair, he wanted to change this. I wish everyone sees this as a problem first for themselves. This problem of not coaching the team members in creates bigger and long term problems for Managers

A Manager Coach normally coaches his team members in situations. It is an approach where he chooses the situation based on its criticality and developmental opportunity for his team members in that aspect. He would discuss & encourage the role holders to think differently and plan action, but they are then free to implement those (using their skills and knowledge) as they see fit. During the situation, he offers encouragement, support, and suggestions. And he suggests on how to react to many possible outcomes depending on what the other team does.

In business, we have to be both coaches and managers. To lead effectively, we need to know when to wear which hat.Managing involves a more directive, task-oriented style that should only be used under certain conditions. It usually produces the best results in a crisis situation, when someone has never done the task before, or when they have little or no confidence in their ability to get it done.

Coaching works best for developmental purposes, especially when you have a team of competent professionals already performing at a reasonably high level. Once you define winning for your organization, team members may need your guidance and support. But in most cases they shouldn’t need direction.

In today’s world though with pressures on goals & outcomes most of the managers tend to stay in the Manager mode over a prolonged period, which almost becomes their style of management. Prescriptive. Directing.Task Oriented. This impacts the team members who just seem to understand their role as just executing the directions of Manager. If and when sparingly they adopt coaching style to lead & develop team members there tends to be certain degree of surprise for team. They almost don’t believe him. Perhaps it is too late for them to react, as they are already hardwired with predominant way of Manager to direct and be prescriptive.

To be a Manager- Coach, knowing when to direct, delegate or develop is critical to managerial effectiveness. Determining which style is appropriate based on the task at hand rather than the individual. Often, people will need a combination of styles depending on the complexity of the task assigned, their experience with the task, and the competency levels required to complete it with excellence. This critical understanding is crucial when we teach our Managers to be coaches. Initially they tend to believe it will slow down their capability to achieve outcomes. They have to be explained that combination of these two styles will work better overall. They must be asked to review and consider situations ( and not individuals) when they can adopt a coaching style.

Here are some of my thoughts for managers who are keen to consider:

Direct when the employee has low to moderate competence with the skills and abilities needed to complete the task. Be sure to define excellence (what, how and when), and provide specifics (templates, examples, etc.) so the person can achieve the desired outcome. Direct when a person:

·         Is new in a role

·         Is new to the company

·         Is new to the client/customer

·         Has new job responsibilities or tasks

·         Has new ways of working

Delegate when the employee has moderate to high competence. Again, define excellence so both sides have clarity around the goal. Then let the employee determine the approach they will take and keep you informed as to their progress. Ask questions and provide direction and specific support when necessary. Delegate when a person has:

·         Some experience in the role

·         A track record or competence

·         A sensitive task or client

·         Confidence in their abilities

·         Similar ways of working

Develop when the employee has high competence and high commitment to the task. Then define excellence and get out of the way! Give plenty of recognition for successful completion of the task. Then determine the person’s next challenge. Develop when the person:

·         Has extensive experience

·         Has demonstrated evidence of competency

·         Has experienced similar clients or task sensitivities

·         Is growing new competences

·         Is trying new approaches

Sometimes we have to coach and sometimes we have to manage. The more we coach, the less we will manage. We grow people. We grow ourselves.

How to assess a company's culture before you take the Job

I am, in some ways, not competent to share my views on this subject. I have just changed 3 jobs in 26 year long career. The only competence that makes me write and share here is my “mistake” in not assessing or ignoring certain aspects when I joined few organizations. I thereafter validated it with some of my friends and colleagues.

The call from hiring consultant will sell you the role & company. High growth, organization is undergoing change to grow and meet challenges, new role created are some of the words you would hear from the consultants. The promoter wishes to change the culture hence looking at professionals at this stage. The selling spiel would persuade you to have a meeting or interaction with company officials. Been persuaded somewhat, if you ask for JD, you may get to hear that since this a senior role, when you meet the Country Head, he will explain the role and challenges to you. If you ignore this and agree for meeting, you have made your first mistake in assessment. 

A nicely drafted JD may land up in your inbox, if you are lucky. However if it appears an average JD rather than being special; ignoring it would be also a mistake. Let us say you don’t realise the mistake and wish to go ahead. Then you must find out from social networking sites if anyone has worked at the company or knows someone who does currently.

• Invite current employees of the company to join your network and ask for their first-hand experience with the company. Rarely would you get a negative response, because firstly the guy doesn’t know your intention well enough, even though you may explain. Your ability to share details is limited as it would mean that you are revealing that you have been approached to replace some existing role holder in the company.

• Therefore it is better to connect with ex-employees and seek feedback. Among various questions that you may ask, do ask about how the organization treats its employees as and when they resign. A lot about company culture is revealed from the way they treat their employees as and when they resign. From relieving troubles to settling the claims. If you cannot get to ex-employees and talk to them, you are probably not well prepared.

• Check out the Web site and see if they have any employee testimonials. If so, do they seem authentic or scripted?

• If the website has details of senior Management team members, do try and understand if they have been there in same role for pretty long. If they have been, look at cultural affinity of these gentlemen to CEO/ MD / Founder. Don’t ignore this fact. It is an indicator for you to ask relevant question during the interview. 

• If you have been told the name of your prospective line manager, if you join, do seek specific feedback from your contacts / sources.

If you do not take these actions now, you are probably making your 2nd mistake. Without gathering enough information about company culture, if you go for interview, you are not prepared well, suffice to say.

One should also notice the sequence of interactions arranged for you, at the company. In case your interactions during the interview process does not include your supervisor or he comes last after his seniors / peers have interacted with you, do not ignore this vital fact. It could mean that when you are in the job, the other seniors / peers to your supervisors are likely to determine your agenda and action. It could mean inter-alia that your supervisor is either weak / ineffective or is being accommodated. In this situation your position will always be weak in the organization, if you decide to join them. Notice, if the interview environment is seriously meant for the interview or there are frequent disturbances. Pay attention to the discussions happening during the disturbances, it may give you some idea of the culture and the attitude of employees in the organization. 

When you will land up for interview / interaction, everyone will seem normal and friendly. The ticket will arrive promptly and vehicle at airport would be there to drive you to Guest house or hotel before you reach office to meet the HR or Country Head. Even the receptionist will know about your arrival and you will be ushered in well.  

Let us assume that you have been courageous enough to reach the stage of interview, ignoring vital sign sin the process till now , atleast now , evaluate all that you see and hear and everyone you meet during the interview process beginning when you walk in the door. Consider things like:

• First impression: What is the office space like, and can you see yourself working in it? Are the aesthetics as per your likings.  Once I had visited a client’s office. The client was a beauty industry giant. As I walked into the reception, I saw the walls were painted grey. I felt somewhat claustrophic. 

• Dress code: Are current employees dressed professionally or business casual, or do they look like they just rolled out of bed?  People in the creative industries like media are open, creative and carefree. At such places you would see people in colourful t-shirts, kurtas, ethnic styles etc. While at manufacturing set-ups, people generally dress formally in pastel colors.

• Energy level: Is the office buzzing, quiet, or chaotic? What kind of visitors come to the office, how are they treated etc.

• Personal Effects: Do people have pictures, toys, and other forms of self-expression in their work area? Are the desks full of cosmetics, snacks, unorganized? 

• Desktops: Do staffers have the latest laptops, 80s desktops, or something in between? Are people carrying gadgets given by the company? 

• Cafeteria/ Meeting place: How are the facilities in the canteen- beverage vending machines, food, drinks, water? How are the sitting arrangements? 

Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the culture, and the things you are seeing and hearing. Consider things like:

• Company behaviour: Do they promote from within, sponsor team lunches, encourage professional development? If the interviewer answers yes to any of these questions, ask for specific examples.

• Ask each person you meet to describe the company culture and notice if you get consistent responses.

• Ask each person you meet with how long they have been with the company.

• If you feel you haven’t met enough people, ask if there are other members of the organization you can speak to about their experience.

• Try to ask as many questions around your role. If role was already existing, ask why did the previous incumbent had left. 

Recruitment, obviously, is a huge cost to the organization. A wrong hire adds on to the expenditure. It is also true that a wrong on-boarding is a cost to the individual’s career and life. One should be wary before leaving and joining a job. Decisions can always be amended though, the only factor irreversible is time.