Question: Many entrepreneurs like to talk about a culture of “family” in their businesses. Yet, you talk about the importance of setting boundaries when relating to employees. Is it unwise to build a business with a sense of family as the basis of its culture?
Answer: First of all, the answer depends to some extent whether you are talking about the Partridge family, or the Manson family. In other words, a happy family or an unhappy one? Hint: the former tends to be better than the latter. Because everyone has a different sense of family, I’d state instead what seems to me an ideal to strive for in terms of creating a healthy culture at work.
On the extreme, and not necessarily unhealthy situation, great companies are “cults,” as several experts point out. The individuals feel a strong sense of belonging to and identification with the company, they understand the rules and beliefs and way of doing business. They are loyal to the company, and expect that they will where can i buy topamax serve the company as it will serve them.
In terms of startups, I think the key issue has to do with setting boundaries and being extremely clear about mutual expectations and agreements in the present and evolving future. Because the roles and responsibilities of individuals often cross functions, exceed traditional working hours or settings, and change on the fly, it’s critical that issues such as compensation, responsibility, and authority are explicitly discussed at the beginning, and revisited over time. Moreover, individuals must have some set of goals that are defined in a manner that supports and grows the company. None of these conversations need to be excessively formal or bound in absurdly overdone legal terms. The point is, however, that the people who run the company and do the work must establish a process of managing people that is perfectly transparent and never prey to personal fiddling. This means establishing a formal way of establishing goals, reviewing performance, sharing the upside, and putting so-called undiscussable issues on the table. Anything less essentially invites confusion and conflict down the road.
Previous
Next