When to Listen to Your Gut
Hogan Systems(R) MVPI
It’s a debate as old as time. Data driven decisions or trust your gut? It’s a spectrum of course and often it depends on the decision. In business we talk a lot about making data driven decisions and we should when determining things like the TAM (Total Addressable Market) of a product or service.
But as an individual, I think we too often ignore our gut. We look past red flags that are screaming “WARNING! USE CAUTION AHEAD!” particularly if we have our mind set on a goal. I find the most damning instance to ignore your gut is when looking for a new job. The financial pressure we often feel in that scenario can rush us into decisions, speeding past all the glaring red flags into terrible situations. Don’t get me wrong, financial pressure is real.
So is knowing on day one (or even before) that you have made a terrible mistake. The culprit is often organizational culture. What data can you use to evaluate culture?
The spectrum from data driven decisions to instinct or gut based decisions is captured in Hogan®s MVPI scale for Science. Full disclosure, I fall low on this scale meaning I trust my gut in most situations by default.
If you are a data driven person, scoring High in Science for example, here is what you might use to assess a job opportunity:
Title
Total Compensation
Job Description (detailed)
Standing (stock prices and trends, Fortune, or Inc. lists)
Online Reviews (i.e., Glassdoor, FairyGodboss)
Awards (Best Places to Work lists)
Each of these data points is important but what do they tell you about what it is really like to work at this organization? Let’s look at each.
Titles mean very different things across companies so this may not tell you very much about your true authority or empowerment. Unless you are an officer in the organization, and sometimes even then, you might learn about your accountability but not about your autonomy to deliver or even influence that which are accountable for. In some organizations, it seems everyone is a Vice President. So again, the title may not tell you very much.
Total Compensation. Okay this data point is important not matter how you choose to make your decision. Just remember to always evaluate the total picture (salary, incentive, equity, benefits etc.).
Over my years, I have too often seen job descriptions that are completely misleading or the bulk of the role falling into the famous nebulous last bullet “Other duties as assigned.” They are often hastily written or contain what the HR department thinks the role is rather than what the role is.
Standing tells you a lot about the financial picture of the company but that may not translate much influence into your role daily. Granted this one can vary wildly based on your role- if in finance or sales, you will pay close attention to this daily.
Online Reviews. This one is tough because what do you believe? Some companies troll these sites and flood them with positive reviews to bury a bad one. Big Brother fears about true anonymity of posts often keep current and former employees from saying too much (if anything at all.) So often what you find here are the polar ends of extremes- Everything is awful, or everything is great. Not super helpful.
Awards pose a similar problem. If there is an employee survey involved, fears about calling out even minor issues could skew the results. Additionally, there are some bad actors out there who game the system but selecting a “representative” sample of employees to participate and shockingly these are often the happiest most engaged employees.
So what should you trust in the job seeking process?
Your network, your interview process, and your gut.
Who do you know that works at the organization? What do they say about the culture? How do they view leadership? What of the data points listed above can be trusted?
And if you don’t know someone at the organization, see if someone in your extended network knows someone that you could reach out to. This is the perfect use for LinkedIn.
Interview Process. How were you treated? Were expectations set and clearly communicated? When you walked away from each encounter, how did you feel about the person you met? Do you see yourself working well with them? Did the organization respect your time by keeping its time commitments and having interviewers fully present in the interview?
Did you walk away feeling that you mattered?
The answers to these questions will speak to your instincts. When it comes to organizational culture and whether it is a fit for you, your instincts are your best guide. There have been too many times I have met with people who knew on the first day that they had made a mistake. While we are talking, we easily pick out the red flags that were present before starting. Disrespectful tones, interrupting, not letting you answer the questions posed to you, taking another phone call during the interview. Red Flags. Don’t ignore them.
If financially you need to accept the offer, do so with eyes wide open. Take it knowing your job search isn’t over and keep looking behind the scenes. No organization is going to change its culture for you therefore you should look for one in which you can thrive. When it comes to that critical question, trust your gut.
#culture #organizationalculture #corporateculture #interviewing #MVPI #hogansystems
