From the Inside Out
Culture can have a great impact on the way people think and behave in their work and personal life. The secret behind successful organizations is in the hands of the people who make the vision of an incredible culture possible.
This is a community of people who wake up every morning to work hard and accomplish the impossible, with no excuses! Just imagine having so many people pushing hard in the same direction with huge passion and energy. Can you imagine the synergy?
I heard amazing things about this company and for a long time I told myself, “I want to work there.” At first, I was afraid to apply and get rejected and I was right! I got rejected twice before being hired in spite of my low English level. PartnerHero was a challenge from the beginning. During my journey, I encountered many obstacles and setbacks that left me mentally and emotionally exhausted. In the end, I had two options: I could complain about the problem, or I could focus on the solution. Well, it took my rebellious mind a while to understand the reason behind this struggle. Now, let me share with you my journey into understanding PartnerHero culture.
Takeaway # 1: Embrace Growth
“There are two meanings to ability, not one: a fixed ability that needs to be proven, and a changeable ability that can be developed through learning” — Carol Dweck
Unfortunately, we are adapted since birth to this fixed mindset. The fixed mindset is a belief that holds a dysfunctional idea that our abilities are set in stone. For example: As we approach a challenge, our fixed mindset “voice” might say: “Are you sure you can do it?” “If you fail, it means you are not good at it”. We often think that when things go awry, it means that we are not capable of doing something. Period.
However, neuroscience has shown that the plasticity of our brain allows us to learn new skills and behaviors. Every time we stretch ourselves beyond our existing capabilities, we are learning and improving. This mindset and behavior encourages the growth of new neural pathways in our brain, forming new connections that weren’t there yesterday.
As I’ve mentioned, my English skills were rusty and didn’t meet the requirements the company wanted. Luckily, I got hired and learned that our personal growth is an ongoing process, and we are all accountable for it.
Takeaway # 2: Take Ownership
“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.” — Nora Roberts
I was a recent college graduate, seeking new opportunities to grow, but most importantly I wanted my work to be meaningful. After a few months of working for a challenging campaign, the company implemented a system to measure the work environment.The results were surprising and some of the low indicators caught my attention: those indicators were related to my area of expertise and I had an idea of how to improve it.
I decided to approach our CEO and, to my surprise, he was very excited to hear about my ideas. A few weeks later, I was presenting the project before him and a leadership panel. I did it! I took ownership and the idea was widely accepted.
What was my mistake? My biggest mistake was expecting others to follow up with me instead of taking complete ownership of the project and rearranging everything to make it happen. In business, when you bring an idea to the table, others will be part of it, whether it is to provide constructive feedback or resources that will help develop the idea.
Whether is in business or our personal life, we will doubt ourselves and things may go awry before accomplishing our goal; but it is important to keep in mind that in order to accomplish something big, it is necessary to tackle our fears head-on from the very beginning and work hard to bring it all together.
Takeaway # 3: Be Humble
“Humbleness is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible changes of life.” — George Arliss
Our minds can be really complicated. I was not aware of my arrogance towards other’s perspectives at work, until I didn’t survive an internal interview. During my feedback session, I was faced with the same old mistakes. Old habits are hard to kill, especially if we don’t accept constructive criticism. I realized that something was broken inside of me and humbleness was not part of me anymore. Humility begins in our heart: it has nothing to prove, but everything to offer. People with big egos tend to be afraid of making mistakes because, when we are exposed to criticism, it might hurt our ego if we are not humble enough to tune it down a bit.
A big ego is the opposite of humility. First, we have to recognize that receiving feedback is inherently a stressful experience. As a species, we have developed a threat response: a cascade of physiological, emotional, and cognitive events that occur when we perceive conflict. By tuning down our ego, we are able to reduce our fear of mistakes, and we open ourselves to new perspectives that expand our understanding about the world.
Takeaway # 4: Caring for Others
“Caring for others is what makes our species unique” — Samuel Veissiere
This isn’t rocket science — it’s brain science. Research shows that we are hard-wired to cooperate with others, but we are also wired for competition. Competition is everywhere in our modern world: in school, at work, in the gym, and more. It is believed that by competing against and comparing ourselves with one another, we learn how to improve and succeed. Oh, the fixed mindset again! If we want to improve our society and ourselves, we must learn that competition is not the path to success, is cooperation.
In PartnerHero, we collaborate side by side, support each other’s growth, and demonstrate empathy and compassion when things don’t go well. I failed to get to the next level. I was so disappointed and the only thing that kept me going was the unconditional caring and support from my peers. The beauty behind this takeaway, is finding out that we don’t just see each other as work colleagues, but as a family.
Our community is far from perfect, but we are driven by a shared desire to never stop learning and building a better company through cooperation. I’m really proud of how much each and everyone of us try to learn from setbacks to deliver excellence every day.
