Identifying Where You Fit

Marshall Goldsmith recently posted on how to identify whether you’ll fit within a company.  The numbers he throws out are staggering.  Turnover rates for top execs are up 3x from the 1990′s and now sit over 50%.

Those are some very expensive mistakes for both the company and the individual.  Because Marshall’s post focuses on the individual, I will too.

The downside of being in a bad situation for individuals is that:

• you can lose your confidence which spills over into the other areas of your life (family, exercise etc.), into the interview process for the next company and potentially into your motivation once you escape
• it can derail an otherwise fast-tracked career
• you may have few supporters from the company that will recommend you for another gig
• the opportunity cost is a year that you could have advanced your learnings and position elsewhere

photo by Salinas | Photography

Marshall’s key points are a great top line overview but we’d like to provide some specifics to help people through this process.  We’ve naturally thought a lot about this at RoundPegg and hope to provide some help to both sides through this process.  Continue to stay tuned, we’re getting close.

It’s one thing to identify the ‘culture’ you prefer but we need to put more meat on that bone.  With that, some specifics around what we believe and have learned:

• What motivates you? Recognition, additional responsibility, money, titles, being the go-to person?
• Who was your best boss? What made her tick and what was the relationship like between the two of you?  Were you treated as a peer?  Did you have input into the decision-making process?  Was your boss a subject matter expert who leaned on you to support her ideas?
• Who would you never work for again? Identify why.  What was it about the individual, how they treated you and what the power dynamic was like between the two of you?
• What values do you unflinchingly hold? Print out a list of values (link opens a PDF) and narrow it down to your top eight.  It’s harder than you’d think.  It took me six rounds of cuts to figure out what really matters most to me.  But it forces you to be honest.  There will be a lot that are close, but just don’t make the cut.
• Pay attention to differences between teams and the company as a whole. Teams will have their own set of norms, values and communication styles.  Listen for differences in the way team members talk about the company.
• Ask others. Old co-workers, bosses and friends can be a good source of insight.  What are your strengths?  When do you thrive?  When is your excitement contagious?  Under what conditions are you at your best?  Worst?  Keep these around.  They’re also a good confidence booster when your morale is flagging.
• Ignore the values on the wall. Talk to people on the team.  Find former employees.  Talk to anyone willing to give you time and try to do so face to face.  Keep asking what gets rewarded within the team and organization.  Values are easy to talk about but they don’t mean anything unless backed by action.
• Be ruthless. Easier said than done when all you want is a job to put food on the table.  But you don’t want to be in the same position a year from now.  Do your homework and if anything is out of place, walk away from the opportunity.  Remember, you’re good at what you do and you owe it to yourself to find a position where you’re most likely to succeed.

With all of these don’t accept the first answer that comes to mind.  Keep asking what/why.  This isn’t an exercise that you should wrap up over a cup of coffee.

This ran a little long, but I hope it was helpful.  If you have additional thoughts for us to consider as we build out our tools please comment below.

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