Culture, Autonomy, and Startups, Oh my!
Oh yes, we are going there.
Preface: HOTG is a team filled with curious hacker geeks. One of the things I am geeky about is culture and building team dynamics that shapes a company that ships real products. In my experience of managing and building winning operational teams (outside of startups and tech), I have learned what works and what doesn’t work. In this post, I am excited to share my passions and thoughts of what I think culture is in startups.
Let start this relationship off, transparently. We all had a job that sucked. We all had a job that did not pay well. But did you ever have a job that sucked AND did not pay well but you loved it? Oh yes, we are going there. What made it magical?
Culture is essentially a set of values, attitudes, and beliefs that shapes the behaviors of the entire company.
Think of culture as a relationship. What does a healthy relationship look like? Let us start by examining our own relationships whether it is with our family, partner, friends, colleagues, or boss. What is the common denominator? Is it a one-way street or is it reciprocal? How much we get out of a relationship boils down to how much we are willing to invest in them and if our values align with the folks who are at the receiving end of it.
Culture is essentially a set of values, attitudes, and beliefs that shapes the behaviors of the entire company. We all experienced, lived, and felt culture transitioning from one company to another. At the end of your workday, culture will play a vital role in determining your workplace happiness.
Have you ever gone home to your significant other and complained about how crappy your workplace environment was? Have you also complained about the people you work with? Oh yeah, cue the collective head nods. Insert, culture.
If you have worked in a company with a toxic environment, you know just how terrible it can affect your enthusiasm, mindset, and productivity. And when it ripples through the entire company, well, there goes the entire company. The impact of the domino effect is real. Mary J. Blige’s ‘No More Drama,’ is playing in the background somewhere. No one wants drama because drama is trauma. Ok, that was bad, but you get the point, right?
Look, there is no sugar coating – when there’s strong culture, the company excels by shipping real products week over week!
THE SOUL OF A STARTUP
Startup is an intangible soul that corporate companies do not have, but startups have. It is one’s search for meaning and not just any meaning, it is the search for a meaningful struggle. If you have met anyone who have worked in multiple startups, you will find that these folks never stop feeling inspired. Bottom line, they inspire to contribute on some level whether it be talent, enthusiasm, or money. They want to contribute to foster a sense of mutual and binding purpose. This is the soul and spirit of startups. This powerful combination produces high engagement and innovation, which results in growth. Who wants to stagnant? Being able to retain this soul is the heart of culture. Why? Driving greatness boils down to intent, connection, and experience.
Culture is fundamentally everyone having a meaningful say in the company. And your word is a currency. It loses value when actions do not match.
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CULTURE
values do not hold much meaning if you do not uphold it.
Values. We all have them. Our behaviors guide our decision making, and are shaped by our values. Behaviors shape companies. How we act will dictate the outcome. Values are the foundation of what makes the company’s culture a hit or a miss.
How do we measure success of values? Glance over to your co-worker to your right and glance over to your co-worker on the left, they are responsible. And then take a long look in the mirror, you are responsible too. How we interact with our team members every day and how we conduct ourselves internally and externally is how we build culture. Creating value requires involving people in the processes and operations of the company. After all, values do not hold much meaning if you do not uphold it.
You got to give a damn. Yes, everyone in the company needs to give a damn.
Yeah, caring is tough. Caring takes energy. And sometimes, it is taxing to care. Being able to call out your team member when they are not meeting their deliverable is extremely difficult. There is no downplaying here. But if you care about the outcome, openness and trust are important. Enter, values. When values are supported by every member on the team, everyone thrives. When we all thrive, you can see the shift of attitudes and behaviors around you. We all get to reap the benefits of being happier, being more motivated to be productive and valued.
ALIGNMENT & AUTONOMY
Look, without alignment within the company, we will all struggle because we will lose sight of why we are building the company in the first place. When alignment is achieved, the company trusts that the people they hired will do the work they set out and want to do. The magic of building a product is leverage, and the only leverage a company has is that its employees are aligned to make the common goal of the company happen, really fast. Tagging on having high autonomy and you got a recipe everyone is drooling for!
Who wants to be micromanaged? Said no one ever. Who wants to ask permission for every-single-little-thing? Said someone who does not want to get work done in a timely and sufficient manner. Culture is an important first impression – it is not about what is currently trending or what’s hip. It is the energy from the top down that will make a lasting impact. Energy is not something you can replicate. In startup, this energy is a different type of influence that flows through the company and exerts outwardly. You can feel it and you just want to keep coming back for more.
In my experience, building a winning team requires working with really creative hackers who have special skills such as valuing empathy over ego, talent over title and collaboration, collaboration, collaboration, to name a few. Did I say collaboration? I am honored to work with folks who are confident in what they do and know why they do it, and paying it forward to their fellow team members. Like I said, the domino effect is real. When one team member wins, we all win.
Holly Ly, signing off, just a geek hacking on functioning startup cultures.