TeamBuilder Search

  • Recruiting Expertise
    • Digital Marketing Recruiting
    • Integrated Marketing Recruiting
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Digital Innovation and Transformation
    • Team Building
    • Case Studies
  • Employers
    • Engagements
    • Executive Transition Services
  • Candidates
    • Jobs
    • Executive Transition Services
  • About
    • Leadership
    • Our Process
    • Case Studies
    • FAQs
  • Knowledge Center
    • Building Your Digital Marketing Team
    • Building Your Digital Innovation and Transformation Team
    • Building Your Emerging Tech Team
    • Building Your Career
    • Career Transition Resources
    • Resources
  • Referral Club
  • Contact

Cultural Fit in Emerging Growth Companies

September 1, 2016

TeamBuilder Search, a professional staffing, team building and recruiting agency, delivers tips, advice and guidance in digital marketing careers, digital transformation careers and emerging growth careers.

One of my hobbies is mixed martial arts. My friends and family think I’m a little crazy, but I can’t help enjoy the training, and of course, the fighting. One thing I’ve learned is that fighting a smaller, faster guy can be very frustrating. They can be hard to hit, they strike quickly, and they’re gone before you can return fire. Heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury agrees,

“I prefer to fight a bigger guy. I don’t like fighting smaller guys; they give me problems with their agility.”

Agility is a gift that should not be squandered in fighting or in business.

We have had the pleasure of working in, and working for, many emerging growth companies. They function differently than more established institutions and are definitely different animals. Time and time again, agility surfaces as a key hallmark of these companies—they simply must be agile. We are not talking about battleships or aircraft carriers here. We are talking speed boats! Speedboats can accelerate quickly, cruise at high velocity, and turn on a dime. So if these companies are going to be agile, they must hire agile people.

Failure occurs in most cases because of a lack of cultural fit, not because of incompetence. Skilled and intelligent people often fail when they are in the wrong environments. We see this all the time, so we thought it would be helpful to look at hiring for emerging growth firms through the lens of our 4 P’s of Cultural Fit.

  • Pace
    Pace is the speed at which a group or team operates. Fast companies need fast people. Team members must act with a sense of urgency and are capable of “bursts” in order to meet time-sensitive goals—hitting needed gates. If you put a lower energy, slower moving, less urgent personality in your fast moving company, you can count on frustration for everyone.
  • Process
    Process of decision-making is how a group makes a decision. A group can be mostly driven by accomplishing tasks, or driven to achieve outcomes. Team members in emerging growth companies really need to be outcome focused. They are the kind of people who are always driving the ball downfield, learning on-demand, making good decisions, and failing forward. Energy and vitality goes down the drain for your managers and other team members if you hire a person who needs to be task driven.
  • Philosophy
    Philosophy of decision making is how opportunities and challenges are approached. Members of a group tend to be either dreamers or doers, idealists or pragmatists. Emerging growth companies definitely have visionaries, but in most roles, they need pragmatically minded people who can connect the strategic elements to actual execution. You need practically minded people to help get through the necessary gates. They must not only get things done, but they have to be adaptable in how they get things done. Hire a dreamer when you need a doer, and you will be left undone.
  • Play
    Play is all about team building, collaboration, and bonding. Team members in emerging growth companies should be fervent about victory for the whole team. These people desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. If you end up hiring people more devoted to personal goals than to team goals, you end up with a lot of posturing and distraction instead of production.

If you get the cultural fit right, you’ll be well on your way to maintaining an agile and profitable environment. You will be able to dodge a punch and then fire right back!

We would love to hear what you think, so please leave a comment below. If you want to talk more about cultural fit and building emerging growth teams, please contact us or call us (614) 852-4465.

Bio

Mark Whitman is the founder of TeamBuilderSearch. Mark’s mission is to help hiring managers recruit elite talent quickly. He takes great satisfaction in helping clients out-recruit their competition. In the process of fulfilling his mission, he takes great care to help digital marketing, integrated marketing, and emerging growth professionals elevate their careers. People say Mark owns a recruiting and staffing company. He says he owns a life improvement company. To learn more about Mark visit our Leadership page.

Filed Under: Building Your Emerging Tech Team
Tagged With: Cultural fit, Emerging Technology

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hiring your digital marketing quarterback

Hiring Your Digital Marketing Quarterback

Digital Agency Growth Checklist

Digital Marketing Agency Growth Checklist

Interview Preparation: Win your dream job

Interview Preparation: Win Your Dream Job

Subscribe to Our Knowledge Center Updates

Sent 2x a month. No spam. 1-click unsubscribe.

Categories

  • Building Your Career (26)
  • Building Your Digital Innovation and Transformation Team (25)
  • Building Your Digital Marketing Team (35)
  • Building Your Emerging Tech Team (25)
  • Career Transition Resources (7)
Recruiting Brief

TeamBuilder Search

We are former digital agency owners, venture capital consultants, business builders, sales professionals, strategists, marketers and project managers. Most of all, we are partnership-minded team builders here to help you build your organization. Clients often tell us, prior to working with TeamBuilder Search, they worked with staffing and recruiting agencies that did not understand digital marketing roles or emerging growth firms.

Visit Us

185 S. Liberty Street
Powell, Ohio 43065 (Columbus,
Ohio)

Call Us

614-852-4475

Email Us

contact@teambuildersearch.com

Follow

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Employers
  • Candidates
  • Recruiting Expertise
  • About
  • Our Process
  • Contact

© 2021 TeamBuilder Search