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Have you given culture much thought?  Seventy-five percent of the executives I work with rank culture more important than pay.

Is the culture of an organization important to you?  Are you struggling to discover a company’s culture?

If you are looking for a promotion, new position or considering a career transformation and fit is important to you, may I suggest you give some thought to culture. Start by think about the culture of your current or last company.

I believe there are two critical things to understand about an organization’s culture:  (1) all organizations have a desired culture and (2) an actual culture.

Often there is a big difference between the desired culture and the actual culture.  This may be because the organization is growing and changing.  Culture does not usually change fast.  Organizations in transition may also have teams or key leaders wearing grey or rose-colored glasses.

Here are proven steps to researching and discovering company culture:

1. Begin by recording your view of the company culture.  Note why you have this view, then note the evidence that supports your view.

2. Look for and read about what the organization states about its culture.  Note your sources, then note the behaviors and actions that indicate there is evidence of the stated culture.

3. Connect with and ask a representative sample of people within the organization about the culture.  Note what your sample tells you.  Realize that cultures have sub-groups or sub-cultures.  Be sure to gather data from a diverse group of people or you may only discover part of the culture.

4.  Connect with and ask vendors and customers about the culture of the organization.  Realize that cultures have layers and may look and feel different from various angles or points of view.  Again note what you are told.

5.  List what you discovered about the culture.  Verify your data.  Determine what you have learned about the culture.  Note how you fit (or don’t) into the culture you discovered.

Don’t forget company cultures evolve and change at a pace different than many other elements of business.  Be careful if you are only talking to people who ‘once upon a time’ worked or did business with the organization.  As you review your notes, think about the key factors that influence a company’s culture:  growth rate, age of the company, industry norms, competitiveness, company strategy and supporting tactics.

Also, culture is influenced by the leadership and management style of those you work for and the job itself.   The culture of an IT department may differ from the culture of an accounting department.

In five simple steps you have collected the data to discover and analyze the culture of a company you are interested in joining. When your transformation includes finding a specific culture or if culture in general is important to you, this data is helpful.

Will you invest the time and resources to discover some of the key components of the company’s actual culture?  If you need help removing your culture blinders, assessing where you fit, or seeing the blind spots that tripped you up in the past, let’s talk.

Have an amazing week!

“Time = Life, Therefore, waste your time and waste of your life,                                                      or master your time and master your life.” ~ Alan Lakein

The quote above is an interesting one.  During a job search or any time for that matter, it is easy to find yourself wondering if you are wasting your time.  Or at least it is for me.

During the last two weeks many meetings and events have fallen on the same day and within in the same week.  In talking with clients, friends and others I am not the only person feeling very busy and with this challenge. 

I also found myself feeling overwhelmed and wondering if all of these activities were a good use of my time or if I was wasting my time (and therefore my life).  At one event, the sessions covered some great information including the new redesign of Google+ and how to use the features, the growing list of bells and whistles LinkedIn offers within its Talent Pipeline, and just how the interface between PayScale and LinkedIn will allow LinkedIn users to automatically see a salary report based on the current job title within their LinkedIn profile.   Don’t get me wrong all of the presenters were good, the information interesting and I could see how most of it might be helpful.  However as helpful as it could be, most of it I could not apply to the goals in front of me or the things I need to be doing to achieve my goals in the next 90 days. 

I find I need to master how I spend my time to help me achieve the goals most important to me and when I don’t do that I do feel as if I am wasting my time or at least using my time in an ineffective manner.  The result of this feeling for me is frustration and a concern about achieving my goals.  I often hear that frustrtation from my clients too.

So I discussed this with a mentor and one of my coaches.  I got some ideas and some advice that should help me over the next several busy weeks.  If you have ideas or advice I would love to hear from you too.

How do you avoid wasting your time?

Here are three tips I received: 

1. Create a solid plan to achieve your goals, then say ‘no’ to anything that does not move you forward toward your goal.
2. When attending a meeting or conference align all activities with the goal at hand.
3. Do 3 things each day that will move you closer to your goal.

Funny thing is – I know all of these tips.  The issue – I forgot to practice them.

Do you have a tip or a suggestion you use to avoid wasting your time?  Post it below.