Personalities and Culture in a Company

We have talked at length in the past about workers that have maybe stayed too long in their roles and are becoming a nuisance or a problem in achieving results. Have they been around too long, become complacent, tired of the work politics and so on?

Today, we would like to address all personalities in a company and how they can help or hurt an organization.

Culture and Personalities

It should be no secret that all varying personalities in your business drive the culture.

What we all tend to miss a lot is that everyone’s personality is different and of those people, they all perceive reality to be different. It is the leader’s responsibility to identify and create a vision for all of those personalities to identify and succeed with. When those personalities match up, a culture is born for worse or better, similar to a marriage! Although we are not a trained or accredited DISC provider, we recommend this for identifying personalities in your business.

When the people don’t align, you create cracks in your culture and as a result, the business suffers in production which results in suffering in profits. The leader’s ability to identify and create culture is one of the most important tasks that a leader can have.

Culture is so important for the success of any company. If the culture suffers, you can be sure that there are profits lost somewhere and vice versa.

Some key items to build a company culture are as follows;

Lead by example – a leader needs to show the way. Senior staff need to show the way and all staff need to lead through their actions. Everyone is accountable.
Communication – without communication people become lost and confused. If you are not sure if you communicate enough, you probably are not doing enough.
Core Values – your business needs to have core values that everyone abides by. If you do not have these, then you need to create them today.
Diversity – when you have a diverse background you bring different ideas. In the future, where you are hiring, try and bring diversity into your company.
Inclusiveness/teamwork – no one likes getting left behind. Everyone wants to be included. Including people builds morale, which builds teamwork.
Caring – everyone hates a rude boss. Showing empathy and care goes a long way when working with people. If you show care, they will work for you even better.
Respect – without respect, you are working with the wrong people. Gain respect by showing others that you are there to work with them not against them. Another key ingredient in gaining respect is showing the workers around you that you can complete their job as well or are willing to get dirty to help.
Learn what works – there is nothing worse than leaders that attend seminars and programs to learn how to do something better. When they return, they try to implement something that doesn’t work with your group. If the leader pushes it, they lose trust. Know what works and learn what works in your company.
Build/Create Talent – talent sustainability should be on the top of a leader’s mind at all times. Hiring and trying to train new people costs a business substantial capital. Continue to mature the group you have and you will see the results.

Are People Set in Their Ways

No matter how old a person is or how long they have been in their job, people have the potential to become set in their ways. If a person understands that they are not always right, you have the opportunity to become open-minded and avoid being set to a specific thought process. Having leadership that enforces people to be open-minded leads others to be willing to change at a moment’s notice.

The world is changing at a rapid pace and the need for staff to change with it is needed. Being set to a specific standard needs to be questioned. But why have people set themselves to a specific standard?

We have identified several below:

Their experience set their standard – some people depending on age have been around a very long time. They have been through the peaks and valleys and set their standard, right or wrong. Leadership needs to identify this in their critical thinking to formulate a proper path forward.
Is it about control – some staff want to have full control without relying on others. They feel that if someone else is superior to them, they will lose their job or become inferior to others. Some staff will go to great lengths to control someone or even a full business. The wrong person next to the owner can make daily life miserable for all staff.
Have they dealt with too much change – this is such a thing. Throughout the years, we have heard a lot of things that were supposed to change the outlook of business! And 2-3 years later, nothing. For me as an example, I have heard about the next best thing at least ten times and it never came true. People ran out of steam or just didn’t follow through. It happens all the time and when change comes along, you ask others to follow. Then it falls through and people give up.
Learned experience may be something you are missing – not enough critical thinking goes into a lot of business transactions. Then people rely on their learned experiences. Yes, someone may be set in their ways, but it comes from a good-intentioned place. Learned experience may have got them to where they are today through a lot of trial and error. If you want to change, these types of staff need to be on board to help make decisions in moving forward.

To offset staff being set in their ways, I would look to our topic above in culture and personalities to offset people being stuck in their ways. Like anything in business, staff are needed to move forward, and understanding and working with their personalities can lead you to great successes and failures. Learn how to adapt and move forward.

The Importance of Personalities

You will always have to deal with varying personalities in business and life. It is just the way it is. Maybe with AI in the future, a person will not have to deal with this type of thing but will host a bunch of other issues. Regardless, it is the leader’s responsibility to identify what their core business is and what personalities they need to succeed.

Staff all want to feel valued in a business and their personality can be of great value for any company.

We have listed some key attributes below for everyone to consider:

Motivates others if used properly -with the right personality, you can motivate others to greatness. Motivation goes a long way in business and encourages others to perform.
It makes you interesting – a personality can make you interesting or annoying! Keep it intriguing and add value at all times, and others will not care how interesting you are, they will continually look for value.
The ability to change – the right personality can bring about change and make change much more enjoyable. Because change is such a difficult thing for many people, they need to be led in a specific direction and that personality can take you to the destination.
Reduce staff leaving – staff turnover can impact a businesses’s profit. It takes a lot of capital to hire and train people and if your company has too much turnover, it can lead to a negative impact on the business because no one will want to come work with you.
Sets your characteristics – personalities if aligned properly can set the company characteristics and values of the business. Align your staff and personalities and you have a well-functioning group.
Communication Improvement – how people act and behave either increases or reduces communication. Get people communicating more frequently to identify personalities and then leaders and owners can fit people into the proper areas of the business to succeed.
Improves chances of advancement – when you have a personality of a go getter, it will lead you to more opportunities at a company and elsewhere. If your existing company does not appreciate your drive and ambition, rest assured that your clients around you notice it and maybe offer you a role soon enough.
No matter your age, it makes you, who you are – you have developed your personality through a lot of trial, error and learned behaviour from others. You are unique and need to bring that to the world. Let your personality identify you and bring value wherever you go.

In any business, staff are the key to your success. Dale Carnegie has a book out called How To Win Friends and Influence People. We suggest anyone, at any level of business, takes the opportunity to read and understand that book.

When you can lead a variety of personalities towards a common goal, you will win in business and life.

If you need any help working with staff and how they can help you succeed, please reach out to our Business consultants at Future to Now Consulting for a conversation.