Managers, do you want the best from your people? Of course. Do you realize you're the reason they aren't performing? Probably not.
Welcome to the era of tight labor resources; an era where highly skilled resources are becoming harder and harder to find and yet? I continue to read about "culture killers." Culture killers are actions and attitudes that businesses, recruiters and managers make that drive (or keep) away the best talent.
First, we need to work from the same assumption: people are looking for more than a paycheck from a job. If we can't agree on that assumption, then continue on your path towards obsolescence. Continue paying the bare minimum, creating a negative culture and then bitch about why you attract and keep sub-par talent. Or take a page from the other under-performers and blame it on "kids today."
For the rest of you, understand this: People are looking for purpose. Time is the only non-renewable resource that truly exists. And we cannot pay people enough for an hour of their life. So, we have to give people more than just a paycheck. We have to give them purpose. We have to treat them with respect. We have to make them feel like the organization is as much "theirs" as it is the owners. Here are three secrets on how we can avoid killing our culture.
Secret #1: A paycheck is not ownership
Bad managers/owners tend to think that because they sign an employee's paycheck that said employee is now beholden to them. For those in the back that can't hear: WRONG! You aren't doing the employee a "favor."
They don't "owe" you something. They are providing a service and you, in turn, pay for that service. The plumber that comes in and unclogs my drain for me doesn't owe me because I paid them to provide a service...so, why do we treat employees like this?
Whether you're a multi-billion dollar corporation or an entrepreneur bootstrapping a company, employees are not indentured servants. They are the engine that drives your organization. Engines that are treated well will deliver a lot of mileage for you; engines that are treated poorly will inevitably leave you stranded somewhere.
Alone.
If you want to kill a culture, walk around and talk about how people should be "grateful" that they have a job; that you, great leader, deemed these lesser people worthy of a paycheck.
Secret #2: Signing a paycheck doesn't make you superior
Bad managers that have bad attitudes. This could be an entire post all on its own. Again, just because you are managing someone or signing a paycheck does not give you the right to talk down to people, roll your eyes, sigh at them, nor give you the right to cut them off while they are speaking. You are not 'better' than them.
Take a look at a lot of job descriptions out on Linked In today. Many of them talk about the need for a SME, a ninja, rock-star, etc. Yet, the day that SME walks into the building...how much respect does he or she receive from the manager? In bad cultures, there's usually a healthy dose of distrust from the manager. Despite all of the interviews, conversations and proof points, managers in culture-poor organizations do their best to maintain an air of superiority over their people.
One day, that manager will be sitting in a room full of people afraid to speak up, afraid to offer new ideas and the organization will be sitting on the brink of failure.
Secret #3: Recruiting IS Marketing
Several friends have been job hunting recently. When we talk, I can always tell the 'strong' culture companies from the bad cultures. And it's all in how they are treated during the process. Bad cultures tend to have multiple rounds of interviews (I'm talking about 6, 7, 8 different rounds!) and leave candidates with dead-air for months on end.
Many organizations have job portals that ask seekers to fill out page after page of information that can be found on a resume, but, since that information isn't presented in a way that the company's algorithm is arranged, well, sorry job seeker...
Recruiting portals in culture-poor companies focus less on finding the right people and more about finding the people who can shove the most keywords into these portals to game the algorithm into thinking the candidate is a good fit.
Interviews aren't conversations, but checklists; interrogations where the only thing missing is some water boarding. How is a job candidate supposed to feel after going through this adversarial process? How are they supposed to turn around and feel valued just because you say "you're hired?" If you can't value a candidate before you hire them...do you expect that person to feel valued because now they are getting a paycheck from you?
But wait, you say, our on-boarding process will make candidates feel welcomed! Perhaps, but, I once showed up on Day 1 to a cube filled with boxes, trash and no chair. What are you doing during on-boarding that makes an employee feel valued? Sitting them in their cube to watch training videos all day?
There is no innovation, no growth strategy and no business plan that can be fully successful while a bad culture exists. Good culture has nothing to do with free coffee, Foosball tables or stand-up desks. Good culture has everything to do with how employees are made to feel. Do they feel respected? Empowered? Trusted? Do they have an opportunity to grow?
From the very first interaction a potential employee has with your organization, they are forming an opinion about you and your culture. Each interaction will convince the employee that you're either an organization worth going all-in for...or just collecting a paycheck until something better comes along.
You can continue to blame HR for finding lackluster candidates, blame the employee for their bad performance, for their negative attitudes...or you can take a hard look in the mirror. Are you a culture builder or a culture killer?
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