Employees often persevere in stressful professional situations in the belief that they must be able to succeed in any environment. When they have finally exhausted themselves, the self-confident can only leave the company with the conviction that the environment is bad. The self-critical, on the other hand, will move on with the feeling that they have failed. Even if criticism of companies is often appropriate and self-criticism is recommended anyway, the interpretation would often be much simpler: we simply didn’t fit together.
In a personal and professional assessment always ask my coachees the question: «Are people different?» I usually get an astonished or slightly disapproving look for this supposedly rhetorical question. But I don’t mean it rhetorically. In terms of reason, everyone always answers that of course people are different. However, when we then look at the personality and strengths of my clients, many of them take themselves for granted and are therefore unable to recognise their own strengths as such.
As they unconsciously assume that all people are the same, perceive reality identically and have the same needs, they are irritated when they meet other characters.
Recognise your needs
This is probably the reason why many applicants do too little to check whether they fit into a company. When I ask them to take a critical look not only at the content of the job, but also at the job environment, many say that you just must be lucky. They think the environment is a black box and cannot be checked in the interview. Just as you determine your interest in the job content by asking questions, you can also probe the environment. The prerequisite for this is that you know what is important to you.
Companies are more careful in this respect: professional recruitment checks both the professional suitability of applicants and their cultural fit. The former is usually carried out by hiring managers in the recruitment process, the latter by HR managers.
Proceed like professional recruiters
One company I know attaches such great importance to corporate culture that in the first round of recruitment it only checks the personal match between applicants and the company. If applicants – sought-after specialists – do not fit into the company in terms of personality and values, they receive a rejection regardless of their professional qualifications.
In this company, recruitment is given the importance it deserves. Many measures such as conflict management and coaching are not necessary if recruitment does its homework. It is no coincidence that the company has a high level of employee satisfaction and low staff turnover, even though it does not pay the highest salaries on the market.
If we assume diversity, we accept that there may not be anything wrong with me or the environment if we don’t fit together. For someone else, the environment I suffer from may be just right.