Working In A Totalitarian Culture
Corporate culture is an intriguing topic and one that is difficult to define. Lee and I both used to work for a company that attempted to measure, ascertain, define corporate culture through a homemade tool. It didn’t work, but the topic was still interesting.
I personally believe that culture is experienced directly from your manager. I worked in a company where my dictatorial manager created a department that was far different than other departments within sales.
In light of that theory, I give you this quick post from Inc.com Stan O’Neal Failed the First Rule of Leadership. The pull quote:
Beth and the other interns were given a strict set of rules governing how they should behave in the presence of the new CEO. If they saw him walking down the hall, they were to stay out of the way and not speak to him. If they were waiting for an elevator and the door opened and they saw him inside, they were not to get on. If they were already in the elevator and he got on, they were to step to the rear and keep their mouths shut.
Now that is a culture I would not want to experience firsthand.
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Posted By Derrick Moe | Leadership, Team Management | |
Your post reminds me of the unique culture I experienced during my first experience with a huge corporation. This mega-organization is privately held, based in Minnespolis and got its start selling trading stamps to grocery stores (no more hints - if you live in Minnesota, the company and its founder are well known). Their were no published “rules” about how to deal with the the owner/leader of this enterprize, but tribal knowledge told us to be ready for tough questions if we ever encountered him. One day I was riding the elevator with the owner/leader (I will call him Mr. C) and a bunch of new hires - one of the women in the elevator cheerily said hello to Mr. C and got the expected reply, “What have you sold for us today?”
Taken aback, and unprepared, the woman blurted, “But I’m in Accounting, not Sales!”
“We are all in Sales, young lady,” Mr. C barked, then, seeing her face crumble,softened. “OK, perhaps I was too blunt. So, what have you collected for us today?”
While Mr. C was at the helm, every conversation was about sales performance, and the culture carried his imprint. Some days I miss that clarity…
[…] this week I posted about a totalitarian culture. Now today I just caught up to a post from GL over at What Would Dad Say that provides a view […]