I don’t know about you, but I never quite ‘fit’ into any of my ’employed’ roles. In fact the one which suited me best was my role as an L&D business partner where I pretty much generated my own workload. Hindsight is a wonderful thing… and it took me all of about 4 weeks as a newly employed coach/consultant to realise that I was a square peg in a round hole in corporate land.
For any one to be happy and fulfilled at work, my co-author Jo and I, discovered in our research for ‘how to make partner and still have a life‘ that there has to be a good alignment between an individual’s personal values and their firm’s values and culture. To help you take a critical look at how well you ‘fit’ in at your work, here are 9 questions which will help you honestly assess how good a match there is between you and your firm:
- How would you describe your firm’s culture, both written and unwritten?
- How well do your personal Values match the firm’s culture?If there is a mismatch, how seriously doesn’t it challenge you?
- Do you feel proud when you tell people which firm you work for?
- What is the gap (rate on a scale of one to ten) between your personal values and your firm’s values and culture?
- In what ways, other than financial, does your firm reward good behaviour?
- Do you enjoy relaxing with the people around you?
- Are you happy spending time with your colleagues in work and out of work?
- Do you feel ‘included’ at work?
- Have you role models and people you respect within your firm at partner level?
What answers or further questions did these questions throw up in your mind?
