Trust and Respect is Fundamental to Any Organizational Culture

Bill Berman

"Most people who lead businesses are not in tune with human beings. They're in tune with with business side, with the financial world; they're in tune with the broad strategic approach they need to take. But the real successful leaders have learned to pay attention to both." Bill Berman

Welcome to a special Inside Recruiting Channel edition of Total Picture Radio, with Peter Clayton reporting. When George Bradt and Mary Vonnegut set out to write Onboarding: How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time (affiliate link to Amazon.com), they invited a select group of experts to share their knowledge in the onboarding process. In this special series here on Total Picture Radio, we’ll be interviewing, in depth, the individuals chosen by the authors to contribute their experience, expertise, and perspective.

The Experts Series -- Onboarding is sponsored by PrimeGenesis. Founded in 2002, PrimeGenesis’ mission is singular: use executive onboarding and facilitated transition acceleration to help new leaders and their teams deliver sustainable, Better Results Faster. Based in Stamford, Ct. PrimeGenesis is led by senior operating executives and organizational development specialists with deep and varied business experience.

Bill Berman, PhD is a senior consultant to management with extensive experience in leadership development and talent management as well as line management for professional services and consulting organizations. Bill is co-author of 3 books and over 50 articles on a variety of psychology and business topics. He works with PrimeGenesis and contributed to Chapter Four of Onboarding, titled Create a Powerful Slate of Potential Candidates. This is the first Guest Expert podcast in the series.

Please Note: We've tried to present the interviews in this series sequentially, as presented in the book. Because of scheduling conflicts, that will not always be possible.

18 Min:

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Questions for Bill Berman:

You focus in on the importance of cultural fit in hiring. I think everyone would agree with this, however a lot of companies struggle to accurately define their culture.
It seems many organizations define their culture as what they aspire to, instead of the reality of what exists today.
You write about defining expectations. This seems simple enough, yet again its one of those things that tend to get glossed over.
One C level job I’ve found expectations versus reality particularly acute is in the CMO role... walking in to a new job with the promise that they’ll really be able to change direction and implement their ideas only to be shot down.
Cultural clashes are something we see in mergers. Do you think so many of these go south because of significant cultural disconnects?
What effect has the economy -- the recession - had on corporate cultures?
Is it possible for large global organizations to have multiple cultures and personalities? And, if so, how do you assess cultural fit?
What didn’t I ask?

Bill Berman Biography

Bill Berman, PhD, a clinical and consulting psychologist, has worked with a number of public and private companies, including Xerox, Unilever, Clinical Communications Group, Diageo, and Kaiser-Permanente. He is co-author of 3 books and over 50 articles on a variety of psychology and business topics. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and is board-certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology and has taught at Cornell Medical College and Fordham University. AB Harvard; PhD Yale.

Resources
TPR interview: Total Onboarding Program with George Bradt
TPR Interview: George Bradt, Executive Onboarding - Part 2
TPR interview: George Bradt, The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan
PrimeGenesis
TPR Interview: John Kotter (Recorded at SHRM 2009)