Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Most of us in management know that we have a certain business culture that we work in. One of the great frustrations I have had, and many others with me, is managing in a way that goes against what we believe to be harmful to the business and its customers.

I want to help you to define what it is that you struggle with and how to handle the real problem.

First of all, we all have the official version of what a corporate culture is. You know, the mantra spoken forth from the "offical" book that outlines the corporate culture.

Second, we have the real corporate culture that is lived out in the real practical daily business that is acted out.

Do you want to know how to find out what it is quickly? Simply watch what is being done, not listen to what is being said. Talk is really cheap. The real corporate culture is always unwritten. And it is in that "unwritten" handbook, that the real instruction on how and what to spend your time on.

The great majority of companies that I have had dealings with, from the top to the bottom, don't really know what their overall purpose and culture is. Yet, again, it's not really that hard to discover, just watch what is actually going on.

Now the bottom line in this is that you need to tune into what the real culture of the company is while keeping in mind what the official version is. As a manager you walk somewhat of a fine line here.

So how is something like this handled? In what I've already said: recognize that in most companies there are really two versions of the company culture - the offical version and the real one lived out on a daily basis.

From a practical point-of-view, as a manager you've got to stay close enough to the official version to protect yourself, and stray far enough in the real version to perform your job efficiently. It's a lousy situation to be in, but it's the real world.

In a perfect world both the official version and the real practicalities would be the same. The great companies have them very close together while the average ones don't. Most companies are average in this area, so you'll probably end up at sometime working for one. Remember these things when you do.