Of Company Culture and Relationships

In the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti: “What is society? Is it not the relationship of one individual with another?”

I then ask the question: What is a company? Is it not the relationship of one employee with another?

And if we talk about company culture, is it not then defined by the quality of relationship of one employee with another?If the answer to that question is yes, then “company culture” is merely an abstract concept defining a set of many individual relationships. So let’s drop that term all together and instead talk about individual relationships within the workplace.

This leads me to the next question: How does one define the quality of a relationship? To me, there are two types of relationships (and obviously the grey areas in between): healthy or unhealthy.

(source: You+Me)

In both cases, the underlying factor is communication. Healthy or unhealthy. In my opinion, the latter is sporadic, lacking empowerment, one dimensional (see top down here), critical and with little recognition.

The former is based on empowering, constant, honest, developmental and multidimensional (from peers) feedback giving as much recognition as possible.

The difference is quite simple and evident.

Ask yourself the question honestly: What is the quality of your relationships in your company?

Because at the end of the day, would you rather hear:

“I am right, you are wrong”, “it doesn’t matter to me how you feel”,  “you are a 1 out of 5”, “ I have no interest in understanding who you are”

Or

“Who are you and what’s your passion?” “How would you like to grow as an individual?” “How can I help you?”

That last set of questions is the first set of questions we ask when people want to join the Talenox team. Because we care.

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