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Culture: Fuzzy Idea Or Useful Tool?

by Miki Saxon

Good company culture is not a bunch of fuzzy, feel-good platitudes—unless that description describes your mindset. Make no mistake about it, people accept offers and reject headhunters because of culture.

I’ll never forget talking with a “mature” CEO who told me that he “never hired turkeys;” when I asked what made a turkey and how he avoided hiring them, he blustered a lot, but didn’t really have an answer. (I probably shouldn’t have asked him in public, but we were at an event.)

Bet you’ve figured out the right answer to both recognizing and avoiding turkeys: culture. You see, no candidate is actually a turkey, but you see them through the lens of your culture, which they just don’t fit, so they look like one to you.

To be a useful tool a culture must be specific and have teeth.

  • To do that you start by writing a cultural mission statement that is no longer than one page, preferably less.
  • You write a high level (no micro comments) statement with this thought in mind: If there was no one available to check with, an employee could read the cultural mission and have all the guidance needed to do their job, handle a customer, talk with a vendor or interact with their associates correctly.
  • You then print and frame enough copies for every person who works for you, no matter what their position.

The teeth come not from what you write, but from your living it and making sure that all your managers are living it, too. To quote from an article I wrote years ago, “Some companies try and fake their culture, talking about how great it is in the media and during candidate interviews, but for today’s workforce, what they see and hear better be what they get, or they’ll be gone.”

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