Making Culture More than Just a Catchphrase
Hopefully not another yada yada culture post
Like every startup, Codecademy places an emphasis on culture. “Culture” is not our way of saying that we want people to stay long hours or because they will enjoy going for drinks with their colleagues. Those things are nice, but not our priority.
At Codecademy, we want a culture which makes working together frictionless. We care about culture because we’ve all seen in previous jobs how badly productivity is affected when certain behaviors are not only tolerated, but accepted as the norm. Work is simplest (and most enjoyable) when it’s just about the work.
In the same way that companies screen candidates for technical attributes they think will be good predictors of productivity, we try to employ the same process for culture. We’ve identified four traits that we think will attract the kind of people we want to work with.
Coachability
For our company to get better, from the CEO down, we all need to get better at our jobs. That means wanting feedback from others, knowing how to take it well, and being able to change our behaviors to improve. We think coachable people have the following two traits:
a. people with low ego who can quickly admit their errors and have a strong desire to find the best solution, even if it’s not theirs.
b. can learn quickly and adjust their approach to suit different situations
Coaching
Second, we look for people who are good at coaching. There are numerous ways that we’re often called upon to coach others in our team. Our recruiters may need to coach our engineers how best to sell a candidate about the role. Or an engineer may need to give feedback to another engineer about how to improve their code quality.
We think those who are good at coaching will be better able to set their colleagues up for success and be good to work with. If we want people to be coachable, we need to make sure we’re surrounding them with people who are good at coaching.
Influence
Third, we look for those who can be influential. Startups are often fast moving and loosely structured organizations that ultimately just want people to get things done. We think there are three elements to gaining influence and being able to get things done.
a. Good judgment — Good judgment relies on knowing the relevant context, and coupling that with strong analytical abilities. Good judgment builds credibility and gains people’s trust that you know what you’re talking about.
b Good heart — It is possible to trust someone’s judgment, but not trust that they will have other’s best interests at heart. People believe and follow those who they think are looking out for others, not just for themselves.
c. Persuasive — Most decisions are ultimately made by a bunch of people sitting around a table. Those not able to hold their own in such a setting will unlikely help get things done.
Ambition and Growth
Lastly, we screen for those who have strong ambition and growth trajectories. We want to build a great organization, one that’s filled with people who are excited about the upside potential of a startup while tempering their fears about its risks.
We hope that our company will keep growing and more and more interesting jobs keep needing to be filled, and those who joined us early will be the ones that rise to fill those roles.
Communication: The Wildcard
Many people have asked why we don’t screen for those with good communication skills. It is true that bad communication is often at the heart of most problems and good communication is the best antidote. But we think the most appropriate way to communicate varies depending on the circumstance.
An engineer who is good at explaining technical matters may not be good at asking for help. A designer who is good at giving feedback might be unclear when giving instructions. As a result, we look to see how a candidate communicates in a number of different contexts — giving feedback, receiving feedback, teaching, persuading, motivating and so on.
Culture as a Cornerstone
We ultimately want low maintenance people who avoid drama, and help stamp out any signs of drama. We’ve had to do a lot of hard work as a team to learn about the traits we care about, and why each of them matter. The best thing we’ve found is that those who have these four traits not only happen to make working alongside them easy, they also make it really enjoyable. We take our work seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We all know deep down that we can improve in some way, but we’re doing our best to keep get better and are looking for terrific people to surround ourselves with who want the same thing. Get in touch if this team sounds like one you’d like to join!
