Culture in Action

One of the most enjoyable things I get to do as a leader is talk about our culture to new recruits, usually doing the induction program. While some of the companies (Amazon, Netflix and HubSpot for example) have a well known public document on their "culture code", in most companies it remains as a tribal knowledge, usually passed on from seniors/leaders. Some organisations regularly conduct refresher sessions, some do it by putting posters and the like. Whether they are practised or gets decayed over a period of time is dependent on many things. Let's dive a litter deeper.

"Culture" refers to the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms that shape how employees interact, make decisions, and approach their work, often when no one is looking or monitoring. It gets furthered by consistent role modelling, recognition of the desired behavior and a reward system that speaks the culture. It decays when leaders deviate from the stated values, new hires that are counter culture and even cutting corners or toxic behaviours are tolerated for "rapid growth". Even in successful organisations, complacency, not listening to feedback or leaving conflicts unresolved would erode the culture. 

When I talk about culture, I would like to give examples and draw attention to "culture in action". My current organization (National Instruments) has four Core Values (or specifically, how we will always behave). They are:

• Constant respect for people
• Uncompromising honesty and integrity
• Dedication to serving our customers
• Commitment to Innovation and continuous learning

Our founder Dr. T insists that the order in which they are mentioned is also important as it represents a value-hierarchy, meaning "Constant respect for people" comes ahead of everything else for example. I was fortunate enough to be in Leadership training program that was led by Dr. T himself and we had a chance to go deeper on these and hear from him directly. 

In my experience, like children learn by observing their parents and not what parents are preaching, organisations too learn by observing leaders and not really what is printed bold. Here's where constantly highlight the examples where a core-value was in action helps. Some of the stories I've told while talking about culture (whether in a formal setting or in a water-cooler conversation) include:

• An SVP once unloaded my luggage from the boot of the cab, when I was still talking with the driver . When I protested, he simply asked "wouldn't you have done the same thing if you had gotten down first and I was still talking to the driver?"
• Regular to see Dr. T holding door to folks behind him
• Way certain firings were handled even when the folks were clearly at fault
• Sales people to engineers interacting with the customer being very honest about what the product can or cannot do for the customer
• Us offering "cheaper" alternatives to the customer even though we could have probably sold a higher cost offering, because we always looked at the best way to serve the customer
• Engineers consistently working long hours along with the customer helping them with their releases, even though technically it might not have been our issue or not enforcing the SLAs. Many a time these engineer didn't even report (let alone brag) about their additional efforts because that was right thing to do and I had come to know only through an appreciation mail from the customer.
• An environment where honest mistakes were accepted and people felt secure discussing about problems, issues or even failures without being worried about retribution. 
• Senior leaders leading the way in learning newer things, not getting stuck with NIH syndrome, or being open for scrutiny in search of better solutions. 

Rituals help actively nurture the culture. Some of the things I do to keep the culture on the right track include:

• Talking about examples of "culture in action" in town halls and/or newsletters
• Public reward/recognition of people acting as desired and creating an impact 
• Not being afraid to rebuke people that are toxic and counter-culture (sometimes it needs to be done in public, if the offence also happens in public)
• Explicitly asking for examples of good behaviour during promotion discussions
• Ofcourse role modelling above all

Nurturing culture isn't easy, but is very rewarding.

Love to hear things you are doing to nurture the culture in your respective organization.

Excerpts from the book: Great Work Great Career

Excerpts from the book: Is my series where I share some highlights and notes I made while reading some book that I think is good, thought provoking and worth sharing.


Great Work Great Career
As we live through successive economic earthquakes that shake the core of our society, it can be difficult to maintain one's footing. Still, Covey argues there is a positive side to these tumultuous times, provided one is willing to take a chance and go with it. Welcome this wild and demanding new world and embrace the opportunities it presents. Covey tells us, don't just settle for a job; you want a great job - Great Work, Great Career.

• A person with a great career makes a distinctive contribution and generates a strong feeling of loyalty and trust in others. Anyone, regardless of title or position or profession, can do these things.
• Dr. Fiona Wood clearly shows us what it means to have a great career. It’s not the acclaim or the fame, it’s the contribution.
• A great career is all about solving great problems, meeting great challenges, and making great contributions.
• He is not ambitious in the sense of needing the signs of external success, like constant promotions or public acclaim, but he’s making a difference.
• object of the ambition. If you’re ambitious only for the trappings of success and unwilling to pay an honest price for success, ambition can destroy your happiness over time. On the other hand, if you’re ambitious to make a real difference—a meaningful contribution—you will experience the deep satisfaction of a job well done and a life well lived. That is the kind of ambition I believe in.
• A great career does not rise from a need for outside affirmation, but from within you, from your own curiosity, from your own unique mix of talents and passion.
• It also rises from your conscience—from the whispers deep inside that point you to what you should do.
• A great career requires both of these dimensions—the desire and skill to contribute, and a character worthy of the trust and loyalty of others.
• satisfies your conscience. But it’s not just about you. It’s also about answering a significant need.
• Your great career starts, as Peter Hawkins and Nick Smith say, “when you stop asking questions such as ‘How do I get promoted?’ and start asking ‘What is the difference I want to make? What is the legacy I want to leave?’”
• “In corporate leadership roles and over 10 years in coaching and counseling, I discovered the difference I want to make—help people make their difference. In doing so, they reclaim their passion and find significance in their work.” — Julia Tang Peters, leadership coach.
• A great career comes down to making a great contribution, to making a difference that matters to you and to the people you serve. Envisioning, defining, and designing your Contribution Statement is the first step on the path to a great career. People who are only looking for a job have résumés. People who are looking to make a great career have Contribution Statements.
• Maya Angelou said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
• Those who create a great career for themselves are those who make the time to define their contribution and plan how they will achieve it.
• The Industrial Age, people simply asked, “What’s my job description?” Now, according to Peter Drucker, “Knowledge Age workers must learn to ask, ‘What should my contribution be?’
• Intelligence has become the new form of property. Focused intelligence, the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and know-how, is the new source of wealth.”

Food for thought for the Weekend

Food for thought for the Weekend: My series where I present assorted collection of interesting blog posts, TED talks, podcast and articles I read/listened this week, some quotes that resonated with me, excerpts from my own reading.


6 Ways to Take Control of Your Career Development

This HBR article talks about six things you can do to take control of your career development.

• Understand what you’re evaluated on
• Solve for your own blind spots
• Codify your learnings
• Increase your visibility with the C-suite
• Become an expert in an area of increasing importance to your company
• Seek good counsel and mentoring

Testing The “Impossible”: 17 Questions That Changed My Life - Tim Ferris

Tim Ferris thinks Reality is largely negotiable.

"If you stress-test the boundaries and experiment with the “impossibles,” you’ll quickly discover that most limitations are a fragile collection of socially reinforced rules you can choose to break at any time." - Time Ferris

In this post he has listed 17 questions that he believes has dramatically changed his life. The questions are very powerful and many are worth answering for ourselves.

Quote of the week:
“Do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance and Other Essays

Video of the week:

The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers - Adam Grant's TED Talk.

Menteeing: How I've chosen my mentors

Knowing that I always would be menteeing under someone, recently a colleague asked me how I go about choosing a mentor for myself. I have never followed a process, but based on my mentee journey so far, I seem to seek mentor for three specific needs:

1. I get a chance to work with an expert and also feel that I can/need learn something from them on their area of expertise. Some examples:

• Even after joining NI, my heart was still in start-ups and I still was nursing the dream of being an advisor to start-up. I figured I was not knowledgeable on the VC/funding part, which I found very intriguing. So, I signed up the CFO of my previous company to be a mentor. I used to have skype calls with him 4-6 times an year and usually used to go with specific questions.  
• Other one was with an expert on Innovation. This is tricky as he has been my friend/peer for a long time. But I specifically wanted it to be called that way, as I got interested in how to go about Innovation. We used to meet 6-8 times in an year and I used to ask a lot of questions and his answers made me think and I was able to implement a few of those.

Both of the above lasted for 1.5 to 2 years and I came out of it being knowledgable about the theoretical aspects of these two subjects.

2. I identify a development need (usually has come from my boss either as a weakness that needs to be fixed or a new skill to be developed for future growth) and then find out who in my circle (or usually in the circle of other mentors) can mentor me. Some examples: 

• My upcoming plan to approach a very senior person specifically on being a project sponsor from a remote site
• Few years ago, I had signed a well known Leadership/Org Development consultant in Bangalore to help me lead technical people after I moved over as a manager to Wireless domain from the EDA domain

Note that #1 above is more of an interest, whereas this one is an identified development need.

3. Finding feet in a new org and to build relationships within the org. This is most important when you join a new org. Even otherwise it is always good to have someone as a mentor outside your own BU especially for folks in remote sites. 

• Almost as soon as I joined NI, I signed up with a senior person at the HQ and it continues till day. During my initial days, this mentor introduced me to lot of people, helped me understand how decisions are made at NI, key philosophies, key decision makers etc., Over the last few years, he is mainly acting as a sounding board (encouraging me to grow and calling out stupid ideas without mincing words). He also lends his shoulders to lean on, offers invaluable guidance on org development and has been one of my big supporters along with my boss.

I owe all my success and growth to a host of my mentors (and bosses that I'm lucky enough to be coached by). When the likes of Steve Jobs and Roger Federer have mentors, why not me and you have a mentor?

Some things that I'd made sure include:

1. You want to be willing to do it voluntarily. Have a belief that there’d always be some blindspots or areas of improvement and be humble enough to acknowledge that we can always learn from others.  Many times I've not liked what I've heard or the things that mentors make me do, has taken me out of my comfort zone, but this precisely is the reason to work with mentors.
2. I always set-up the meeting based on mentor’s availability and what works for him 
3. I diligently work on things they suggest (do something or read something) and keep them posted (fair amount of email conversation between meetings)
4. I show up for meetings and own-up something that I’ve not done (don’t give excuses)
5. Sometimes mentors do ask for favours (usually for others, rarely for themselves) and since I’m taking their useful time, I’ll act on them.

Please note mentors do not get anything in return for their time and efforts. However they do get a lot of joy in seeing their mentees grow and succeed. I'm therefore very careful with their time.

In summary, I've sought mentors for the following:

• For a reassuring pat on the back
• For an unapologetic slap on the face
• To explain why my fears are unfounded
• To tell me why my excuses are BS

(and for everything else you've a friend/partner/spouse that tells you exactly what you want to hear, make you happy in the short run and therefore possibly irrelevant in the long run).

Now go find a mentor.