My role as Head of Executive Search has always been to identify senior level to C-level professionals who meet the criteria of the position, and I have always told my clients/candidates that my job is to ensure and find a cultural fit! So when Ian posted the below feed on LinkedIn, it truly resonated with me.
What a fantastic question from a 4 year old, don’t you think?
Ian Parry, Retail Director at Bristol Energy
My daughter Daisy (4 years old), called me as I was leaving work this evening and asked me a great question.
“Daddy did you have fun with your friends at work today”.
A really simple and innocent question! But it made me think about the environment I work in. And if indeed I had been having fun with my friends today.
Company culture is the one thing that will make or break a business, it empowers or breaks, energises or drains, motivates or discourages your team.
Unhappy workers are 10% less productive (Univ. of Warwick)
So how do you get it right?
No matter the size of the organisation, hiring someone with impressive skills and the wrong attitude is a sure fire-way of sabotaging your business. It only takes one senior level professional who does not fit into the culture of a company you have creating or created to break the mode.
There are clear steps I use to determine the type of candidates an organisation is seeking when taking a brief
- What are your core Values? Every business has values even if they do not know it, company valuesonly work if they are an accurate reflection of the goals and ambitions of your employees. If you don’t know what they are I can help you determine what they are.
- What are your business drivers? Monitoring the performance and progress is a key aspect of top management. Without it, decisions are made with no guidance, plan, or feedback. Key drivers are leading factors affecting performance for a company.
- Employee engagement – How do you empower, mentor and coach your team? You have to get people excited, and proud to appreciate a business. Empowering and encouraging creates a culture that thrives.
- Communication, it may sound old school but is key to the success of any business. How you communicate across the board could be a game changer for some candidates.
