Organizational Culture

If your team isn’t telling you the truth, your business is already in trouble. Alan Mulally saw this at Ford. The company was losing billions, yet every leader reported “all green.” Why? Because under the old CEO, red meant you were out of a job. Mulally changed the culture. He praised candor, not perfection. Red became a chance to rally support—not assign blame. That shift unlocked the truth and helped save Ford. Great leaders don’t demand good news. They create safety so their teams can tell them the truth. Here’s how: 1️⃣ Create safety for honesty. 2️⃣ Keep reporting binary: on track/off track. 3️⃣ Reward the truth, even when it stings. 4️⃣ Rally the team to solve problems together. 5️⃣ Set ambitious goals—some red means you’re pushing hard enough.

🗣️“You must be more assertive.” Last year, those five words burned into Amy’s memory. She’d walked out of her 2023 review at XYZ Global determined to “step up.” Speak more in meetings. Push harder on decisions. Stop softening her tone so she wouldn’t intimidate anyone. She did exactly that. Fast forward 12 months. Same conference room. Same 2 VPs across the table. 🔇“You’ve become too intense, need to work on softening your approach.” 😑 Amy stared at them, speechless. Wasn’t that what you asked for last year? Which version of me do you actually want? She thought about the past year: 🤔 The time she challenged a flawed budget forecast in front of the CFO, saving the company $3 million, but earning whispers that she was “abrasive.” 🤔 The time she stepped in to rescue a failing project, praised for her “grit” publicly, yet privately told she “dominated the room.” 🤔 The time she finally got invited to an executive offsite, only to overhear a VP say, “She’s great, but can be… a lot.” This is the tightrope trap senior women walk daily: • Be assertive, but not too assertive. • Be collaborative, but don’t fade into the background. • Be visible, but not “hungry.”    The same behavior praised in men (decisive, strong leader) gets women penalized as abrasive or too much. Until you set the narrative yourself, you’re trapped performing for a moving target. If you’re exhausted from balancing on a wire men don’t even see, here’s how to step off it and still rise. 1. Audit the pattern, not just the feedback • Track every piece of feedback, especially contradiction. Patterns reveal bias. If the goal keeps moving, it's not you! • Phrase to use in review: “Last year I was encouraged to increase my presence; this year I’m told to soften it. Can we clarify what success really looks like?”    2. Control the frame before the room does • Pre‑set the narrative in 1:1s and emails leading up to reviews. I.e., “This year I focused on driving results while bringing the team with me, you’ll see that reflected in project X and Y.” • This primes leadership to view your assertiveness as an intentional strategy, not a personality flaw.    3. Build echo chambers, not just results • Secure 2–3 allies who reinforce your strengths in rooms you’re not in. • Promotions happen in the absence, you need people echoing your narrative, not someone else’s. • Phrase to brief an ally: “If my leadership style comes up in review, can you speak to how I challenge decisions but still align the team?”    Women aren’t just asked to deliver results. They’re asked to perform, decode, and reframe, all while walking a wire men don’t even see. If you’re exhausted from balancing between “too soft” and “too aggressive,” stop walking the wire and start controlling the narrative. Join the waitlist of our next cohort of ⭐ From Hidden Talent to Visible Leaders ⭐ https://lnkd.in/gx7CpGGR 👊 Because leadership shouldn’t feel like an impossible balancing act.

When Mary Barra took over GM's HR department, she found a 10-page dress code policy. She replaced all 10 pages with just two words: "Dress appropriately." The HR team panicked. A senior director sent an angry email demanding more detailed rules. But Barra held firm. When the director called to complain that his team wore jeans to government meetings, she didn't cave. Instead, she told him: "Have a conversation with your team." Two weeks later, he called back excited. His team had solved it themselves...they'd keep dress pants in their lockers for important meetings. Here's what happened across GM: 1. Managers started making decisions instead of following rulebooks 2. Employee engagement improved as people felt trusted 3. Bureaucracy dropped as leaders focused on outcomes, not compliance Barra realized: "If they can't handle 'dress appropriately,' what other judgment decisions are they not making?" She built a culture where thinking mattered more than rule-following. Most companies write longer policies to avoid problems. Mary wrote shorter ones to create leaders.

The million-dollar hiring secret: Culture over skills. Hiring for "culture" isn't just trendy - it really does transform a team. When you get the dynamics right, productivity, retention, and morale all skyrocket. But how do you find that perfect person? The one who doesn’t just tick the boxes, but elevates the whole team? I’ve been there. Early on, I focused on those who had the right experience. I thought hiring someone who could hit the ground running was the key to success. But I quickly learned that when someone’s values clash with your company culture, it affects everyone. That experience taught me this: cultural fit matters just as much as skills. Now, I’m fortunate to work with a high-performing team, built by hiring for culture first and skills second. By focusing on this, we've created not just a high-performing team, but a resilient one. When your team aligns with company values, they stay longer, collaborate better, and contribute more meaningfully to the team’s success. Of course, leadership also plays a big role in why people stay or leave - but that’s a post for another day! Here are the top questions I ask to assess culture fit: 1️⃣ Describe a work environment you loved. What made it special? ↳ This reveals their values and what they need to grow. 2️⃣ Tell me about a time you disagreed with a company decision. How did you handle it? ↳ Their answer shows how they approach conflict and express concerns. 3️⃣ What’s the most creative idea you’ve implemented in a previous role? ↳ This highlights their problem-solving skills and initiative. 4️⃣ How do you prefer to receive feedback, and how often? ↳ This uncovers their communication style and openness to growth. 5️⃣ Can you share an example of a mistake you made at work and how you handled it? ↳ This demonstrates accountability and adaptability. And my favourite, inspired by Simon Sinek: 6️⃣ "I hate surprises. Can you tell me something that might go wrong now so I won’t be surprised later?" ↳ This question tests honesty, foresight, and self-awareness, while starting an open dialogue about challenges. When you go beyond the traditional surface-level questions, you’ll discover more than skills. This is how you can uncover how well a candidate aligns with your team’s values and dynamics. 👉 What questions do you use to identify a good culture fit? ♻️ Share this post to help your network build stronger teams. 🔔 Follow me, Jen Blandos, for actionable daily insights on business, entrepreneurship, and workplace well-being.

US-based employers: over the next few weeks, you're either working around the clock with your managers to protect the healthy norms you've worked hard to create—or watching in dismay as your workplace falls apart. You might have your norms written down on a wall somewhere, and think that's enough to weather this storm. Not even close. You can say the words "collaboration," "respect," "inclusion," and "kindness" all you want, but it's what happens in every team when those norms are violated that defines what kind of organization you are. ⚠️ When team members refuse to communicate with their colleagues who voted for a different candidate, are your managers prepared? ⚠️ When people denigrate or insult their colleagues in Slack or Teams messages or in the chatbox on a video call, are your managers prepared? ⚠️ When a "high performing employee" decides to express prejudiced, exclusionary, and discriminatory ideas about protected groups, are your managers prepared? In workplaces around the country and around the world, these kinds of incidents are far from novel. But when flashpoints happen, like a major election, the fragile balance of a workplace culture is easily upended. Each and every violation that occurs is a test of the norms that workplace leaders purport to have, and when employers fail that test, the consequences can be disastrous—disrupting everyday work, destroying trust in leadership, poisoning team morale and culture, and more. Managers make or break that possibility. 🌱 Your managers must be prepared to mediate conflict. ⛔ Your managers must be prepared to articulate what behavior is tolerated and what isn't. ⚖️ Your managers must be prepared to hold others and themselves accountable for when harm occurs and norms are violated. ⛈️ Your managers must be prepared to support and manage negative emotions, anger, frustration, and grief among their teams. 🚀 Your managers must be prepared to lead by example, even through their own strong opinions or feelings. 📢 And every executive must be prepared to support their managers by establishing expectations from the top, communicating transparently about resources and support options, and coaching managers who need help reaching that standard. If your workplace has taken this challenge seriously, it's already been preparing in this way for weeks and months. But even if you're only starting today, it's never too late to lead.

What makes an organization worth existing? This critical question is barely asked enough and certainly not answered enough. Evaluate your organization along these 3Ps to assess its value and necessity. Many organizations are there because… yes, because of what actually? The general (capitalist) answer is that they generate employment and economic value and thereby contribute to economic prosperity. Whether we agree or disagree, it is still merely a general answer. It doesn’t tell why any particular organization should or should not exist. To get a better answer, we need to look at which aspects of an organization make it worth existing. There are three: Product, Place, and Purpose PRODUCT - The organization as product/service producer The most tangible contribution any organization makes are its products and services. It is these that create value for customers and thereby make the organization meaningful to at least a select group of people or organizations. The key question to ask here is: do the organization’s products and services make it worth existing? PLACE - The organization as working environment Organizations are not merely product and service producers. They are also a place where people come together, interact and form relationships. This makes them worth existing as well, this time not for customers, but for employees. The key question to ask here is: does the organization’s working environment make it worth existing? PURPOSE - The organization as impact maker The third source of worth is an organization’s purpose. This concerns what it aims to achieve in the world and which significant problem(s) it chooses to address. It may not be able to solve them alone, but it can make a contribution that matters.  The key question to ask here is: does the organization’s purpose make it worth existing? The most valuable organizations answer a convincing “yes!” to all three questions. Their products and services address a real need, their working environment is great for people, and they contribute to a better world as well. This means that, if you want your organization to be worth existing, the goal is to score a yes on all three aspects. It doesn’t mean your organization shouldn’t exist if it only addresses two or even one aspect. Maybe your products are not really great and you haven’t managed to create a great working space yet either. But your purpose matters a lot. Then your organization is worth existing—and you know where to improve. Or, maybe your purpose is merely making money, but your products serve a real need and you offer a great working place where people flourish and grow. Then your organization is worth existing—and you know where to improve. Now look at your own organization. Is it worth existing on all three aspects? If not yet, where’s the biggest improvement? #organizationaldevelopment #companyculture #leadershipmindset

Want better brainstorming sessions? Start with this unexpected icebreaker: Have everyone share an embarrassing story. Here’s why it works (and why research backs it up): 🧵 This comes from Leigh Thompson, a professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Her research found that teams who start with embarrassment generate more ideas—and better ones. Why? A few reasons: *It reduces self-censorship, so people feel freer to share bold ideas. *It builds vulnerability and trust, making collaboration stronger. *It shifts the mood—less pressure, more creativity. Instead of filtering ideas out of fear, people open up. Instead of playing it safe, they take creative risks. Instead of shutting ideas down, they build on them. Try this at your next brainstorming session: *Share the time you… *Sent a risky email to the wrong person. *Walked into a meeting with food on your face. Completely blanked on someone’s name—twice. Watch what happens next.

Hard Work Doesn’t Cause Burnout.  This Does. People don’t burn out because they’re weak. They burn out because they’re at war—every single day. Not with the work. But with the culture. Most high performers can handle pressure. What drains them is the invisible combat of surviving a toxic environment: • Fighting for basic recognition. • Tiptoeing around ego-driven managers. • Navigating blurry expectations. • Absorbing blame just to keep the peace. • Working long hours—not for purpose, but for permission to belong. This isn’t hustle. This is emotional survival disguised as productivity. Burnout isn’t always from too much to do. It’s from not enough safety to be human. It’s the silence you bite back. The trust you can’t give. The energy you waste decoding office politics. And here’s the truth no one puts in the job ad: "Toxic cultures break people before the deadlines ever do." So what builds resilience? Not snacks in the break room. Not "We’re a family" posters. ✅ Clarity over chaos. ✅ Trust over fear. ✅ Leaders who listen—not just talk. When people feel safe, seen, and supported— They don’t just survive. They rise. They create. They lead. Let’s stop glamorizing burnout and start talking about the real cost of toxicity. What’s one silent culture killer you think companies need to call out—loudly? ♻️ Share this with your network if it resonates. ☝️ And follow Stuart Andrews for more insights like this.

🌎 Designing Cross-Cultural And Multi-Lingual UX. Guidelines on how to stress test our designs, how to define a localization strategy and how to deal with currencies, dates, word order, pluralization, colors and gender pronouns. ⦿ Translation: “We adapt our message to resonate in other markets”. ⦿ Localization: “We adapt user experience to local expectations”. ⦿ Internationalization: “We adapt our codebase to work in other markets”. ✅ English-language users make up about 26% of users. ✅ Top written languages: Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese. ✅ Most users prefer content in their native language(s). ✅ French texts are on average 20% longer than English ones. ✅ Japanese texts are on average 30–60% shorter. 🚫 Flags aren’t languages: avoid them for language selection. 🚫 Language direction ≠ design direction (“F” vs. Zig-Zag pattern). 🚫 Not everybody has first/middle names: “Full name” is better. ✅ Always reserve at least 30% room for longer translations. ✅ Stress test your UI for translation with pseudolocalization. ✅ Plan for line wrap, truncation, very short and very long labels. ✅ Adjust numbers, dates, times, formats, units, addresses. ✅ Adjust currency, spelling, input masks, placeholders. ✅ Always conduct UX research with local users. When localizing an interface, we need to work beyond translation. We need to be respectful of cultural differences. E.g. in Arabic we would often need to increase the spacing between lines. For Chinese market, we need to increase the density of information. German sites require a vast amount of detail to communicate that a topic is well-thought-out. Stress test your design. Avoid assumptions. Work with local content designers. Spend time in the country to better understand the market. Have local help on the ground. And test repeatedly with local users as an ongoing part of the design process. You’ll be surprised by some findings, but you’ll also learn to adapt and scale to be effective — whatever market is going to come up next. Useful resources: UX Design Across Different Cultures, by Jenny Shen https://lnkd.in/eNiyVqiH UX Localization Handbook, by Phrase https://lnkd.in/eKN7usSA A Complete Guide To UX Localization, by Michal Kessel Shitrit 🎗️ https://lnkd.in/eaQJt-bU Designing Multi-Lingual UX, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/eR3GnwXQ Flags Are Not Languages, by James Offer https://lnkd.in/eaySNFGa IBM Globalization Checklists https://lnkd.in/ewNzysqv Books: ⦿ Cross-Cultural Design (https://lnkd.in/e8KswErf) by Senongo Akpem ⦿ The Culture Map (https://lnkd.in/edfyMqhN) by Erin Meyer ⦿ UX Writing & Microcopy (https://lnkd.in/e_ZFu374) by Kinneret Yifrah

A few years ago, I was in a high stakes meeting with colleagues from Japan. I presented my points confidently, thinking I was making a great impression. But as I scanned the room, I saw blank expressions. No nods. No engagement. Just silence. I panicked. Had I said something wrong? Was my idea unconvincing? After the meeting, one of my Japanese colleagues pulled me aside and said, “Sumit, we really want to understand you, but you speak too fast.” That was my light bulb moment. For years, I assumed that mastering English and business communication was enough to build strong global relationships. But the real challenge wasn’t just the language - it was the rate of speech! Most of us don’t realize that speaking speed varies drastically across cultures. Here’s an eye-opener: ·      In India, we typically speak at 120–150 words per minute. ·      The global standard for clear communication is around 60–80 words per minute. ·      In Japan, where English is not the first language, this rate drops even further. So, what happens when we, as fast speakers, communicate with someone who is used to a much slower pace? Our words blur together. The listener struggles to process. And instead of making an impact, we create confusion. We often assume that if people don’t understand us, we need to repeat ourselves. But the truth is, we don’t need to repeat - we need to slow down, simplify, and pause. If you work in a multicultural environment, here are three things that can dramatically improve your communication: a.   Control your pace: Consciously slow down when speaking to an international audience. What feels “normal” to you might be too fast for them. b.   Use simple language: Smaller sentences. Easier words (vocabulary). c.    Pause & check for understanding: Don’t assume silence means agreement. Ask, “Does that make sense?” or “Would you like me to clarify anything?” I’ve seen professionals struggle in global roles - not because they lack expertise, but because they fail to adjust their communication style to their audience. I’ve also seen leaders who thrive across cultures, simply because they master the art of respectful, clear, and paced communication. If you want to succeed in a global workplace, rate of speech is not just a skill - it’s a strategy. Have you ever faced challenges due to differences in speaking speed? Let’s discuss. #GlobalCommunication #CrossCulturalLeadership #EffectiveCommunication #SoftSkills #CareerGrowth #WorkplaceSuccess #HR