It’s All About the People

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Earlier today I was talking with some colleagues about cultures at different startups. One company was mentioned and everyone promptly said they knew someone that used to work there and didn’t have a good experience. Now, the takeaway isn’t that the company doesn’t have a strong culture, rather, they bring on people that aren’t a good fit, and those people often self-select out. The stronger the culture, the more people that don’t fit because it’s so well defined and tight. Two successful companies can have very different cultures.

In a startup, and every business, it’s all about the people.

Ask anyone about their job and what’s the first thing they say? They say the people are great (assuming they like the job). Things like the market opportunity, compensation, and office environment always come after how they feel about the people. What’s the number one reason cited for people quitting a job? Answer: dislike of their manager. It all comes down to people.

What else? Do you agree that it’s all about the people?

Comments

8 responses to “It’s All About the People”

June 19, 2013

Greg Horowitz (@greghorowitz)

Actually, I’ve found it’s frequently about senior management. I’ve worked for companies where I liked my coworkers and had great immediate supervisors, but dysfunctional executives. Inevitably, the good people either left or got forced out. I’ve also worked for bad managers at well-run companies, and those companies recognized the problem and either got rid of the manager or moved them into a role that better suited their talents. One way or another, it always ends up trickling down.

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June 20, 2013

Izzy Green

There is no such thing as no culture. Every business has a culture. And if its not a good culture, than you have a bad culture.

As I once heard from a wise businessman “I’ll rather not hire 10 good people than hire that 1 bad one.”

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June 20, 2013

Richard Kirby

I would agree 100% that it’s all about the people! In a small company, each person has tremendous potential to create success or curtail it. The big question is “How do you hire people who fit with the culture AND will be productive?” In a startup, bad hiring decisions have very notable effects. Leaders are challenged to make good hiring decisions, many times with little or no formal training or effective selection tools. The good news is that these deficiencies can be overcome, as long as the leaders recognize their shortcomings.

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June 20, 2013

executiveimpact

If you consider that the leaders/founders are “people”, then in the larger sense it really is all about the people. The bad news is that most leaders are not trained and have questionable skills for locating and selecting talent for their team. The good news is that these things can be learned our outsourced.

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June 20, 2013

englishprogrammes

Absolutely! Having bad managers was my central reason for leaving a supposedly reputable organisation. The final decision came when I was told by manager to mind my own business and stay in the staff room when a student of mine was run down in a car accident minutes after he’d finished class with me, leaving his poor sister wailing on the street. That poster that said “Every child matters” in all the classrooms I was in just made me feel like an absolute hypocrite. And so I left.

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June 20, 2013

exclusiveyahu

It is indeed all about “the people” for the good or the bad…

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June 20, 2013

Diana Pagan Hair Design

It is all about people and the work environment. A while ago I worked for a married couple that were not the most polite people. This made the work environment hostile. All in all it comes down to the people.

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June 22, 2013

pvs

A good ‘leader’ can do both the things run a company smoothly as well as hire cultured employs it totally depends on that person.
Enviornment of working also depends on the nature of that person…

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