Five tips to know if you are the wrong person in the wrong organisation
How good are you and how good is the company you work for?
Most people want to perform above average and to be an essential part of an organisation. The truth can be bitter and disappointing. These are few tips to start questioning yourself and your organisation:
1 Are people leaving the company or talking about quitting?
If people are leaving even if your company is making money, then probably the people leaving are the best people, taking advantage of their success to enhance their resume and get hired by another brand. Or the reason may be that your company does not treat people fairly and the market is offering better options and salary profile for the same position.
Why are you not considering leaving?
Most of the time the weakest part of the workforce is the one that remains loyal to the company. It is made-up of people that would probably have difficulty engaging in a new organisation. There is also a very small percentage of people who remain through their own choice, motivated by their true principles.
Are you staying because you have reason to stay or because you cannot find a job elsewhere?
2 Every morning, anyone you meet moans about something: lack of resources, lack of direction, lack of communication, etc.
This is symptomatic of disengaged personnel, poor management and a lack of leadership. Individuals keeping information to themselves, thinking that knowledge is power, conflict within the organisation is created to maintain control over people, employees are overloaded and forced to do overtime with the excuse that they need to help the company, with no reward or financial compensation.
Are you one of the people that feel being left behind, with minimal or no information and direction or are you part of the reason for other people’s discontent?
3 Any time someone has an idea, everybody finds a reason to put it down.
Negative and toxic environments destroy an innovative culture. People do not feel free to express their ideas and their concerns, because they are worried about comments, reactions and consequences. The power of the team is undermined and the organisation is set-up to defeat success.
Have you been put down or do you put others down?
4 Does the company pretend to focus on employees, but in fact all the cost savings seem to occur by cutting employee benefits and allowances?
Delicate question to answer without the proper background knowledge. Market circumstances can be dictating extreme measures, it is possible that after a long period of prosperity, allowances and salary schemes have become disproportionately inflated and now require a painful market realignment. Having said that, there is a limit where your ability to survive until end of the month should not be reached. If you have the feeling that the accountants have taken over management and everything is dictated by the nickel and dime, then it is probably time to look for a new job.
If you are the manager allowing that, then you are doing it wrong.
Remember a company exists both for the owner or the investors to make profit and for the employees to make a living. If one of the two is missing, there is no reason to keep the company running.
5 Is your company producing more paperwork than actual operations?
In the 21st century we are guided by certification and this is good to guarantee visibility and leverage around the industries. But it is easy to lose focus on the actual core business and allow a company to transform into a “compliance institute”, no longer delivering what the client is expecting. There is no discount for safety. A robust safety management system is a must for any company and this is how it should be. But procedures and policies should reflect the way your company operates. No document should be issued, if not absolutely necessary and if it merely slows down production and increases costs just for the sake of a measurable KPI, then maybe this policy should be revised. One of the major sicknesses of any industry is ”tick-box” exercise paperwork.
Are you a person that create useless documents or you are a box-ticker? Both are wrong habits that should be interrupted.
You may recognise yourself or your company in one or more of these five points. You should be able to come to your own conclusion at this stage. Some nice insight from Simon Sinek at the link:
