Dive Brief:
- Tech companies face a myriad of workplace culture challenges, and a new study has identified four such hurdles that substantially affect a tech organization's ability to execute, innovate and improve performance.
- Unfortunately, the study, "Culture: The Next Big Thing in Tech," from VitalSmarts, a leadership training company, also found that tech leaders receive little to no training or coaching on how to successfully manage these difficult scenarios.
- The four cultural challenges include: "It's Gotta Be Cool" (tech employees prefer elite employers and path-breaking projects); relentless pressure, consistent ambiguity (unclear and overlapping accountabilities create confusion, misalignment and competition) and "Déjà Vu All Over Again" (employees avoid tough conversations that might be crucial to project success out of concern for creating bad blood with a potential future boss or co-worker).
Dive Insight:
David Maxfield, a VitalSmarts co-founder, says the study found that these challenges are "elephants in the room that everyone sees, but no one directly confronts." He adds that interviews suggest they go unaddressed for two reasons: one, leaders don't have the skill to address them; and two, there is a "heroic" cultural norm in tech that suggests real players are too smart or too motivated to be daunted by these realities. Ultimately, they grow from manageable concerns to serious workplace negatives.
The good news is the survey data confirms managers who successfully lead through these challenges see significant improvement in performance across their teams, while benefiting from the much higher chance of predicting performance.
"Far too many tech leaders think product is all that matters—get to market and all the cultural issues disappear," says Joseph Grenny, also a VitalSmarts co-founder. "Our research shows those who thrive in the long-term give equal attention to building product today and a culture that can sustain results tomorrow."
