Who's coming with me?

Remember Jerry Maguire, the movie about the very affable and loyal sports agent who is fired for basically speaking out against his company’s culture? Before Jerry famously bags up the resident gold fish, he delivers a very targeted and relevant message about culture while recruiting people to join his new firm. His words about doing something real, something fun, and something inspiring along with his mission statement set the tone for what he is hoping to accomplish.

The topic of culture has been frequently showing up on my feed in recent weeks. One of the things that I really enjoy and benefit from on LinkedIn are the differing opinions expressed on this platform because let’s face it…nobody is really ever right or wrong on the majority of the topics written and discussed here. So please don’t take my thoughts in this article as the Holy Grail as they are simply things that I have found to be true through my experience.

Here are a couple of catch phrases that have made the rounds here on LinkedIn:

·       Culture is everything!

·       Culture eats strategy for breakfast!

On the flip side, I have also read that trying to hire people to fit into an existing culture is promoting anti-diversity. I don’t agree with that statement at all but I do understand that part of the problem with trying to hire a “cultural fit” is that this can be very subjective and each hiring manager can interpret the culture in their own vision.

With power comes great responsibility.

First of all let me just state this for the record, I 100% believe that organizational fit is extremely important when hiring people. I also understand that misusing “Cultural fit” could be a way to be anti-diverse. Before you ever even think about hiring people for “cultural fit”, you must be able to define it. Although I use the term cultural fit, I like to think of them more like shared values. No, this does not mean that I don’t hire people who don’t have identical values as me. That can be pretty far reaching and get you into race, religion, and political affiliation which is why defining your values is a must.

Here is how I define our culture at Bard Care.

We take our jobs seriously; we just don’t take ourselves that serious!

• Integrity & Respect – We strive to always do the right thing and treat people the right way. This is true for our customers (both clinician and patient), our employees, and our colleagues. This also means that you must make decisions which are right for the company because without a company, there is no job for your employees nor are there products and services for your customers. I believe that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of you!
• Collaborative – My boss always wants to know what your “secret sauce” is but I make sure that we are all sharing it! For us, it is a huge red flag if we have a new sales representative who is not reaching out to the veterans for advice because each one of them will go out of their way to help by sharing what they have learned through their experience. I also recognize that our Territory Managers are all competing to be #1. In fact, our sales contest drives behavior more than our compensation plan does. That being said, winning as a team takes precedence over individual and district accolades. Being the best player on a terrible team doesn’t count for much.
• Fun & Fulfillment – I don’t take myself that serious; never have and hopefully never will. I like to have fun and strive to create a really fun workplace. A lot of people refer to our team as their work family…I love this! It is not unusual for us to have a group of sales reps showing up early to our National Sales Meeting so they can hang by the pool together or get a round of golf in…this is truly special! I want people to experience so much fun and fulfillment as a part of our team that they will really question the opportunity to make more money somewhere else. Let me be clear, this type of loyalty is not built just by having a fun environment; it takes so much more!
• Winning- It doesn’t matter how great your culture is if you aren’t winning because if you aren’t successful, you won’t be around long enough to enjoy it. No doubt that a strong culture will get you through the tough times but you still must be highly effective. We celebrate success big time here!
• Likable – This one may be controversial and this may not be important to your organization but it is to me. It is better to have a hole than an A-hole…I emphatically believe this. For me personally, I just find it much more difficult to get past challenges and hard times with people who I don’t like. Part of this reason is that I end up avoid interacting with them as much as possible which is a recipe for failure. We have all worked with people who we don’t like and probably always will but it just makes work a little more fun and easier when you are doing it with people that you like and respect.

 Culture, Shared Values, or even Mission Statement…call it what you will but I believe that organizational fit is critical when hiring people. This does not mean that you hire exact replicas. To the contrary, you should strive to hire people with different backgrounds and experiences. Your organization will infinitely grow stronger when you hire people who think differently and have ideas that challenge your current thought process; this is a good thing! You can have a very diverse team and still have critical shared values. #howIhire