When I talk about an employer's personality, however, I'm not talking only about the manager's personality. I'm talking about the corporate personality, something far too many of us overlook in our career decisions.
Corporations, like individual people, have distinct personalities. In fact, when people band together in a group, for whatever reason, the group develops a group personality that is quite distinct from the personalities of the individuals. Often the personality differences between groups are easily recognizable. At other times, they are extremely subtle.
Most of us, I think, can easily see the personality differences between Americans as a group and the Japanese as a group. The personality differences between Americans and Canadians, on the other hand, are a bit more difficult to define, but they're clearly there. Similarly, I think most of us could easily see the personality differences between, say, an ad agency and an accounting firm. At the same time there could be subtle, but clearly definable, personality differences between two ad agencies.
Corporations are also very much like people in the sense that they're born, go through infancy, childhood, teen years, and adulthood. They become elderly and sometimes die. Corporations are different from individuals, of course, in that they can go through radical personality changes by changing the people in the key decision-making positions. Chrysler is a prime example.
The point is, though, it's generally easy to characterize a corporation in human terms, much as we would characterize our selves. The key is to develop an honest and objective personality profile of yourself, and then determine whether a potential employer matches that profile.
Some personality traits commonly seen in corporations are.
Open or closed. Some corporations are honest and direct in their dealings with employees, suppliers and customers. Others tend to be defensive, closed to criticism and unwilling to accept the idea that something they're doing is less than perfect.
Flexible or inflexible. Chances are you've worked for a company that was almost militaristic in its approach, expecting people to fall into a routine and adhere to rigid guidelines. Other companies allow broad latitude for their employees and encourage them to take creative liberties with their jobs.
Aggressive or defensive, progressive or conservative (two commonly used adjectives), outgoing or reserved, formal or informal. Just as these words are used to describe people, so can they be used to describe corporations.
In career terms, the ideal is to get a clear fix on a company's personality before you accept a job with it, and accept positions only with those whose personalities match your own.
This is easier said than done, but here are some hints for doing so:
" If possible, talk to several employees within the company. The interview process usually involves just one person in the corporation, so bear in mind that this one person does not reflect the corporate personality.
" Assess the personality of the CEO and his or her immediate subordinates. They probably set the tone for the company as a whole. If you're interviewing with the CEO, bear in mind that he or she may be insulated from how others perceive the company due to the natural tendency of employees to cater to their boss. For example, a CEO may feel that his company is a good listener because his people all listen to him, while the company might be perceived by the rest of the world as a good talker but a poor listener.
" If the company has branch offices, visit them and see what they're like. How do people answer the phones? How do they address each other? How are the offices decorated?
All corporations, by virtue of the fact that they are corporations, have some structure, just as all people, by virtue of the fact that they are people, have arms and legs. The important question is how they use that structure and whether you can function comfortably within it.
Again, I can't emphasize enough the importance of getting a fix on a corporation's personality before you take a job with it. And don't ever accept a position with the expectation that either your personality, or the corporation's personality, will change. That's a certain step toward career unhappiness.
