PART of my work before as a people manager was to interview candidates to become part of my team. Included in the files Human Resources gave to me for each candidate was the result of their culture fit test. The test assessed the candidate’s values alignment to the organization, which also provided insight on the kind of working environment the candidate will thrive in and excel. Using the results of the test, I asked follow-up questions to determine if the candidate was a good fit for my team.
Managers need to understand that hiring should not be based solely on the candidate’s knowledge and skills. They also need to look at the candidate’s behavior because the one they hire will affect the overall work culture of the team.
A team’s work culture is the set of values a group collectively believes in which helps them achieve their goals. This not only describes the working relations of team members, but also reflects what is expected from each other and how they interact with other departments of the organization. Some team cultures expect and even glorify working late, while others demand work-life balance. A team’s work culture depends on what a team leader has nurtured and developed.
As the leader of the team, you are responsible for your team’s culture. You are also responsible for screening the people who will work well with your team and help your team reach its full potential. A good work culture eases communication because everyone is aligned in terms of mindset, expectations and purpose. This results in increased productivity and a mutual understanding that the product of one team member is the work of the entire team.
If you are managing a team, you are the primary person in developing your team’s culture. Your cue comes from your organization’s core values which you should adopt. But you need to translate those core values into what it means for your team. For example, I was part of an organization whose core values included innovation. I used to lead a group of trainers in that organization, so to be innovative I asked them to develop, discover, or adopt new ways of delivering training. This resulted in gamified training materials, which became an additional selling point for the organization to acquire new clients. To create a beneficial team culture, make sure that the team’s values are aligned with the organization’s core values.
In addition, your values as a team and what defines your team culture is anchored on your team’s purpose. Your team needs to understand that what they do contributes to the success of the organization, and to their personal goals. The best way for you to acknowledge their contribution is to reward their efforts. Rewards can come in many forms, so choose the ones that your team will actually appreciate. What you reward gets to be what is expected from other team members.
To understand your team’s current culture, do a quick survey of your team’s employee experience since they joined the team, and how fast they have assimilated. Take note of how they interacted with each other, and the tools and work processes they used every day so you can identify where you can improve their experience. Remember that their experience will feed into the kind of team culture you want to develop. Their experience will validate the kind of workplace culture you want them to imbibe. If not, you might need to plan and implement culture-building initiatives to improve your team’s culture, some of which are discussed here.
Set aside a schedule to mentor your team. Mentoring does not always have to be a formal engagement where both mentor and mentee follow a pre-arranged material for discussion. Part of mentoring is understanding where your team members are coming from. You cannot do that if they feel that everything they say and do is being evaluated. Try having lunch with them or engaging them in small talk once in a while just to get a feel of what interests them. From there, you can provide opportunities for them to explore those interests so they can find ways to improve their work.
If mentoring is limited because you have a big team, you can look for learning opportunities where they can hear from experts on how to do their work better. If possible, provide opportunities for each of your team members to do a learning session to discuss a successful project to the team so others can learn from it. This also helps you highlight the kind of accomplishments that are expected from your team, and at the same time provide a venue where your team members can be proud of each other’s accomplishments.
If not a learning session, publicly recognize team member’s accomplishments especially those that are awarded by the organization. This is one way of creating a linkage between the organization’s goals and your team’s objectives, and this helps your team understand that while your team may have its own goals, it still contributes to the organization’s target.
Check and evaluate your team regularly so that you can fine tune the team’s culture. It does not have to be as formal as an organizational climate survey, but it can be done by observing how your team members work with one another, and by taking the conscious effort to know each of your team members better. You need to understand that if you want your team to assimilate the team culture you have in mind, it should also be aligned with your team’s personal goals and aspirations.
In the end, walk the talk. No matter how badly you want your team to have a certain culture or working environment, everything rises and falls on you as the leader. If you do not embody the values you want your team to develop, you will find your team doing only the bare minimum. Or worse, they will look for a manager who can lead them to where they will thrive and prosper.
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