How Company Culture affects Personal and Career growth
Growing up in Nigeria, Social Studies was a compulsory subject and Culture was one of my favourite topics.
Culture is a way of life of people that can influence a person’s behaviour. It plays a vital role in shaping society. Good culture makes it easy and natural to progress and collective progressive behaviour is a boon to a company. It just seems like progress is happening automatically.
This is something we see when a ‘mediocre’ student in a Nigerian university goes on to school in a different country with positive cultural vibes and becomes a star. The progressive culture of that country transforms the student’s behaviour and this will be evident in the general happiness that would affect the student’s performance.
Office politics is not very healthy as is the case with all politics in any guise. You’re in luck if you work in a place where politics is almost non-existent and the company culture is not toxic. Many fortune 500 companies nowadays have that progressive culture that makes the workplace very interesting. These companies know that bad company culture can corrupt one’s outlook on life, especially for young professionals. These young professionals end up believing that workplace toxicity is a normal thing and they carry that for the rest of their lives because let’s face it, there is not much difference between Mr. Lagbaja at the office and Mr. Lagbaja at home or anywhere else for that matter. Most of these professionals end up becoming bad bosses.
In the defense of toxic company culture, it shames people to do the most to get results, after all, the result is all that matters, right? That is the same problem with badly run countries. The citizens resort to “by hook or crook” and all fundamental sane and progressive human behaviour is thrown out the window for results.
Companies with a bad/toxic culture can only beget;
- Dangerous company politics
- Resorting to vices to getting results
- Cases of suicide, depression, etc
- Bad relationship/ unhealthy rivalry among coworkers
- Zero retention
- Zero loyalty to the company
- Making “mediocre” employees only less mediocre
- Lack of empathy
Companies like Google, Twitter, Zappo, Shopify, SafeBoda are successful due to excellent company culture that leads to;
- Retention of the best staff
- Helping “mediocre” employees become Stars
- Excellent relationship
- Organization growth
- Excellent attitude to work, etc
Ever wondered why Jurgen Klopp keeps hugging and sometimes kisses his ‘boys’? Ever thought some of the Liverpool players would be average at best in some other teams but are superstars at Anfield?
It’s because the organisational culture that Klopp’s leadership has established is continually churning out good results. You can always notice the happiness within the team.
In an interview, Klopp said “I want the people around me to be happy. And as a manager, that also means having confidence in employees. I believe the greatest strength of strong personalities is to surround yourself with people who are stronger than you in certain areas.”
Other examples of some very impressive and successful companies with great culture are clearly written here.
At SafeBoda, we take pride in the kind of culture we have. A culture that Babajide, Country Head of SafeBoda Nigeria always talks about and acts upon. When you interact with leaders like him, you grow your technical, mental, and emotional power. You look forward to each day because there’s a lesson to be learnt- Leaders are Servants. I must add that Jide attends the ops daily stand-ups and earnestly engages with everyone, Managers, associates, and interns alike. Unlike most Nigerian companies where ‘sir’ and ‘ma’ would fill the air, at SafeBoda we call each other by our first names. We party most weekends, celebrate every milestone, organise company getaways, etc. The atmosphere is such that many young Nigerian professionals would wish to be part of. A place where you would most likely see folks that enjoy the weekdays more than they do weekends because we don’t work on weekends. Yes, we love being at work. Lmao!
I want to reiterate what Khalid (Art Director of SafeBoda Nigeria) once told me, “At a certain place I worked one time, I’m always at loggerheads with my boss… it’s not like here”. He was replying to a question about how he can contact people from his former workplace.
Company culture shapes a person even outside the company. The behaviour that was inculcated in them begins to manifest in other areas of their life.
This is why it is imperative that Young Professionals are properly nurtured because the Intern of today will become a Manager tomorrow.
