WALK THE WALK

I’ve been hitting a lot of company websites, and reading about a firm before I meet with them. It’s interesting how firms sell themselves either to their clients or to their prospective employees: firm philosophy, culture, people, their way of doing business – whatever. The “pitch” may be far from the reality. When you pull back the top layers of any organization you will most likely find a very different opinion from what top leadership thinks the website should say about the firm. So how do you instill a culture where everyone in the firm has a shared sense of the way things are there and it is reflected from the top to the bottom? You start by listening and allowing team members to honestly tell you what their experience with the firm has been. You might even courageously ask: “If I were CEO for a day at XXXX, Inc. I would [fill in the blank].” The answers you get might surprise you, amuse you – and inspire you.

Ann Banning - Wright