Hey, just a quick question. How do you like organisations that cultivate a “we are family” culture?
In those types of cultures, your colleagues are so nice and friendly. You feel well and motivated to be among them. Until the moment they can’t deliver a result on time and with high quality. It’s okay if this is just one case, but if it goes forever? Projects are delayed, the time and energy are wasted, people are not accountable, but nice! Now, you feel frustrated — you are the “family” and need to support each other no matter what.
The idea behind that is simple. If employees are treated as family members, they will treat others and clients the same way and go a mile more to make everyone happy. The problem is in a family, you can be weak and still be a member — your loved ones will cover your back as many times as needed. In contrast, in a professional environment, you need to produce excellent results without delays, take ownership and be accountable.
Yes, some companies successfully adopted family-like culture and yes, some aspects such as caring, belonging, respecting others are essential to cultivating. But this kind of culture creates low performing people who lower the motivation and ambitions of others — your ambitions, effectively creating a downward spiral of declining performance. Is treating everyone as a family member a good thing, or is it a poison to you personally? @Denise Yohn has written an article about why your company should stop saying it is like a family. @Dan Price posted less favourable stuff: “when you see “we’re like a family” in a job ad, run like hell”
Companies, such as #Revolut or #Netflix, realised the importance of high performance, and they cultivated the culture of winning teams. They implement the analogy of a professional sports team. These companies look for the A grade players because they know: only ambitious and high performing individuals working together can win the game. They constantly look for this type of people and are not afraid to lay off low performers. As long as a company lives in a commercial space, this approach is relevant. It can save the company from crisis and make the company as a whole more robust.
Ambitious top performers can work together and compete with each other staying professional, continuously improving the productivity of their organisations and becoming more skilful and professional. In the same way as elite athletes, they improve themselves to be the best. They also can make fast and sound decisions and execute on them. As highlighted by @Erin Meyer at @Oslo Business Forum 2021, this approach can increase accountability, spark innovation, and spur growth. At Prdikt, we name this type of people Professional Business Athletes. I believe you are one of them?
👀 What are your thoughts about it? “Family” or “Professional business athletes” culture? Comment below!
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