A tea stall in India is a great place, especially if it is right outside an office.
You get to hear some great stories there. You know who is going around with whom, who has failed or succeeded to achieve their targets, how did they achieve them and most importantly how are the bosses in the company. Everything that a new joinee should know about the work culture of the place can be easily assimilated if you spend some time at this tea stall.
The most important thing for an organisation is its work culture. I believe that work culture is indeed the ‘Atma of that place. Unless there is the Atma, body organs (various departments) of the organisation are of no use. Without the Atma, the organisation is destined to fail no matter what.
An organisation is nothing but a group of people who work towards a shared common goal. Just like the organs of a human body, every individual or department may be doing a specific function, but they all work towards a single common goal, keeping the body alive. The moment there is a problem with the Atma, one or more functions of the body begin to falter making the body sick.
Hence, the million-dollar question is who creates an organisations culture and more importantly what/who destroys it? Indian mythology sheds great light on such things. It clearly states that there are three entities involved in keeping the Atma: Brahma- the generator, Vishnu- the nurturer and Shiva – the destroyer. If we look for this trinity in any organisation, then we find that it is the leadership that plays all three roles.
As Henry Ford had once said “Coming together is beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success”, the onus of making this happen lies greatly on the leadership of any organisation. If leaders, right from the CEO to the lowest rung Manager does not believe in this mantra, then it is impossible to create a positive and thriving culture.
No matter how good the leadership is with the outside world, if they are not good to the employees, the organisation’s most important asset, then positive culture does not take root. But what are the signs and symptoms of a toxic work culture?
- Lack of work-life balance
Some people are workaholics. That is not bad, but if you expect everyone else to be a workaholic too, then that is bad. Some bosses call up their subordinates when it is well past the working hours and want to know their plans for the next day. Bosses, who believe that there is nothing called as life-beyond-work or doubt the concept of work-life balance are the ones who take the first shot in killing the positive work-culture in any organisation.
- Abuse is a part of the job
Verbal abuse is absolutely a no-no. However, it might even be tolerated till the time it is done in a lighter vein or as friendly banter, but when verbal abuse is resorted to while reviewing the subordinate’s performance or while seeking answers, then there is a problem. An abusive boss is never considered a leader.
- Results come first, everything else is later
Results are very important for every department but their pursuit is seen most prominently seen in the Sales function. If the subordinate has missed his/her targets, then it is the duty of the superior to find out the reasons for the failure. But not achieving a target is not an overnight phenomenon. Had the boss kept a tab on the subordinate’s performance regularly, this situation could have been avoided or atleast the gap could have been reduced. But disappearing for the whole month and appearing only upon the completion of the month is a trick that causes bad work-culture to flourish.
- The ever Hanging sword
Since revenue generation is a critical function in any organisation, Sales is indeed a high-pressure job. But saying that “you will be fired if you don’t achieve the target” or “I will stop your salary if you don’t perform” is the worst thing a boss could say. Instead of encouraging the subordinate to pull up the socks and perform, it further demoralises an already lost subordinate. Thereafter, the only direction the subordinate puts his/her effort is to search for a new job and not to salvage the one in hand! his existing one. A resignation might be just a number down, but the economic implications of this unfortunate event are huge. There are direct and indirect implications on the revenues due to resignation.
- Favorite come first, always
The moment departments change into fiefdoms then that is the beginning of the end of any organisation’s culture. Fiefdom creates a team of favourites and no-favourites. The favourites get much better treatment, are often excused even for grave errors, while the others are berated even for minor errors or even for no fault of theirs! So the option for the not-so-favourites is to either change the group or change the company. Changing the group is extremely difficult as the entrenched ones don’t allow you to join in easily. Hence, changing the company in such a situation is far easier.
- The magician
Houdini is considered one of the greatest magicians of all time. One of his famous tricks was to seal himself inside a wooden crate with his hands tied securely and then immerse this crate in the water. After a minute, the crate would be pulled out and Houdini would not be found inside. Houdini would emerge from amongst the crowd, unharmed and jolly well. A lot many bosses do this Houdini trick on their subordinates. They disappear at the months beginning, do not share any insights, give feedback/suggestions or even review the performance for the whole month and appear only on the 1st working day to ask for achievements.
- The reply is the beginning of a new argument
For positive culture to take root, dialogue is a key component. A culture that believes in a monologue or suppresses the expression of views or ideas creates a bad culture. Bosses who ask for an explanation but are not willing to listen to it or don’t allow their subordinates to voice their point of view cause the bad culture to flourish.
- Success is mine, failure is yours
Many bosses believe that the joy of success or pain of failure, both needs to be shared with the team. But some believe that they can never fail, or worse they don’t want to be seen on the losing side. Such bosses believe that failure was caused by their subordinates, but success was only because of their effort. They even go to great lengths to portray this to their bosses. This creates a feeling of being left to defend themselves in the minds of the subordinates.
It is very easy to say that employees are the organisation’s greatest asset. But there are few who pay lip service to such ideas. Organisations may initially succeed by not focussing on developing a positive work culture, but in the medium or long term, such organisations are often wiped out.
The famous marketing guru Simon Sinek had once “customers don’t love a company until the employees love it first”. And to makes the employees love the company, the work culture needs to be good. And the leadership of the organisation has to take the lion’s share in making this happen.
