The Truth About Culture - How to Find Your Culture Match
What’s one of the top questions every leader seems to be asked by a candidate? “What’s the culture like?” I’m not gonna lie, in my early days of being a manager and interviewing candidates, I thought it was a bit of a cop out question for a candidate to ask.
Boy was I wrong.
But in that moment, what do so many hiring managers respond with? “We’ve got awesome snacks.” “You can bring your dog to work.” “You can wear jeans and flip flops to work.”
I’d call those things perks. Culture is so much more.
It’s a shared belief system. It’s the lens or the filter in which employees make decisions. It’s a common language spoken within a company or a group. And yes, in large part, it defines you.
Here’s the kicker: Culture is as much what you permit as what you encourage.
Think about that for a minute. You can talk about company values. You can post them on big huge posters throughout your space. You can highlight them in all company comms. But if your management and leadership teams don’t correct behaviors or actions that fall outside your stated values, it’s all for not.
I’ve worked with clients who have felt super pumped in the interview process and once they got into the culture, felt it to be totally different. That feeling sucks.
I have two actions for you to take if all of this rings a bell.
First, be prepared with your own interview questions to dig into culture and values. Interviews are a two-way street and you need to ensure it’s a mutual fit. Here are some ideas of questions to get your brain spinning:
What company value is celebrated most?
If you were to re-write your company’s values, what value would you add?
Which value do people struggle to embody?
The second action is to write down your own value system. Pretend for a moment you are the CEO of your own company, of your own career. What “company” values would you write for yourself?
Put those two steps together and you’ll be on your way to finding the company with a matching value system and culture.
