Embrace your culture

You know one thing we can all do better at our companies? Embrace our culture.

Large, medium or small, companies of all sizes strive to homogenize who they are. They try to be the perfect combination of all things to make the employees happy. For example, here's what most companies feel they need to be:

At our company you only have to work 37 hours a week, you leave at 4:45 PM no matter what, you have great benefits, profit sharing, happy clients, no paperwork, no travel, no pressure, no conflict, everyone giggles all day long and you can paint your workspace any color you like. And, by the way, we're a world-class, top notch, high-producing, ultra-profitable, fast-growing enterprise.

The problem is, you can't be all of the above. You can't be great and not pay attention to what you do. Sometimes we need to put pressure on each other to exceed our last performance. What if you paint your office space a color that makes a co-worker sick to their stomach? And what if you're the client and you need something at 5:45 PM and no one answers the phone--how long will you be that fast-growing, world-class company?

As Popeye said, I yam what I yam. Let's embrace that, trumpet it throughout our organizations, to our customers and enjoy who we really are.

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com
LaBov Sales Channel
PB&J Newsletter

Emotions and workplace

A very close friend of mine worked at a huge conglomerate for decades. They gave him the good news that he could choose to retire and get a severance package. He chose the package and left. He had put in years of work there but when he left he wasn't crying over it, he was unemotional.

Then he landed a job at a small entrepreneurial shop and for the first time in his life was engaged in his work. He was also stressed to the max trying to keep up with the pace and deal with the culture there, which was very unique. The owner was a charismatic, brilliant guy who had a ton of bravado.

Well, the unthinkable happened, my close friend was fired one day, out of the blue (as far as he was concerned). He was given no notice, no warning, just "pick up your personal belongings and leave now." Here's what's interesting to me:

He now hates that place with every fiber of his soul--the very place where he was totally engaged, where he felt he was making a difference for the first time in his life.

In the case of losing a job or not being able to keep up, it's not the cold, mediocre companies that we hate, it's the one in which we felt most important, where our heart was most engaged, that's the one we despise.

And to be accurate, I believe that the charismatic leader of that company probably didn't know the full extent of the situation, he was probably played by a few people that wanted my buddy out of there.

No matter, the more personal and unique your culture, the more likely the emotions, both good and bad.

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com
LaBov Sales Channel
PB&J Newsletter