Signs You Might Be Struggling With Cultural Fit
Cultural fit defines much of your experience in a team or company. Over the course of my career I’ve had the opportunity to be part of some great teams, but something you will likely notice whether you love your team or not is that there will be someone on the team with a polar opposite view to yours. It feels so strange to be in that position, how does it even happen? One reason could be that you are a pessimist (just a bit of honesty here :) ), or an optimist. The other reason could be cultural fit.
Signs That You Are Struggling With Cultural Fit
There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of varying signs that indicate lack of cultural fit. We’re not going to try and boil the ocean right now by going through all the possibilities, but I’ll help you get your brain moving in the right direction. Here are a few situations that can signify a lack of cultural fit:
- Your methods aren’t recognized or understood. You might have personal experience succeeding through a specific strategy, but you come to find that others in the team don’t agree with your methods.
- You don’t seem to share the same values as those around you. You might even feel pressure to do things that you feel aren’t true to yourself or the way you work.
- Your areas of focus and urgency are constantly out of alignment with peers and leaders.
You’ve Got Some Options
Each of us should be working toward a situation where we feel fulfilled, accepted, and encouraged by the environment we work in. To find that might take some time. I love this line by Simon Sinek,
The problem is life, relationships, career are not destinations like, look I found the job I love. It’s the same with love, it’s like, I found love. No you didn’t, you work hard every single day to stay in love, it’s a journey.
Finding the right job isn’t a moment in time, it’s a journey with challenges, wins, and a lot of learning along the way.
Here’s a few things you can do if you’re out of sync with the culture:
- Push for cultural change. Cultural change can be extremely difficult, but in your case it could be worth it! If you love the team and genuinely feel that they could benefit by adopting some of your methods and values, then do your best to make a change. To accomplish this you’ll need to be persuasive. Work to help leadership, as well as your peers, understand where you’re coming from. Use language that is familiar to them, or in other words, make sure when you explain your ideas, you’re speaking the same language. Semantics can vary heavily from company to company. Show them examples in your workplace of ways to improve, and where you can, hard evidence of things you have tried that have resulted in recognizable results. Data is always good to back up your ideas, so do your best to show what you have. This option is challenging, but not unachievable. It will almost definitely take some time to see results.
- Become part of the culture. Sometimes you don’t fit in, but you recognize that if you did you’d become a better version of yourself. Learn as much as you can from your peers and leaders. Be willing to take their advice, even if it seems a bit foreign to you. In the end you might just slide right into a situation where you grow as a person and find cultural fit.
- Find a new job. If you feel that your path diverges too widely from that of the group you work in, it may save you, and oftentimes the people you work with, a fair amount of pain. This could be a new group within the same company you work for, or a new company altogether.
No matter the situation, you’ve got power to make a change. Don’t accept a situation you are uncomfortable with. Make a plan, and then make a change.
