How to Win Corporate Culture Wars in a Pandemic Recovering Economy (Part 1 of 4)

The fallout from the longest and most world ravaging health crisis in a century continues to unfold. From the utterly terrifying scare that publicly hit the US in March of 2020 to the now generally numb acceptance of an average 1735 Americans dying on each of the last seven days, the business world has been through so much forced environmental change and adaptation that it may rival the pace of change of the industrial revolution itself.

One environment which will never be the same is corporate culture and the glaring need for attention to cultural overhaul. As in Darwinian philosophy and the capitalist business ethos itself, the strongest will survive: not just the vaccinated but the well calculated. That means a winning corporate culture is no longer a luxury to be achieved atop Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – a line item only to be addressed in the expanded “wish list” of expenditures – but an investment critical to join the survival of the fittest.

“Once any major organization experiences a void of culture, talent becomes susceptible to the call of recruiters and the transitions that follow.”—Lee Sellers, Director Americas Digital Sales, North Region US.

The Resignation Landscape

So much is currently being analyzed about the “The Great Resignation” phenomenon taking place over the last seven months: the quitting of jobs in record numbers, which hit its peak last November at 4.5 million workers. Everything it has to tell us about pandemic-initiated moves into retirement, opportunism to capture higher salaries in a candidate-driven market, continued effects of Covid on various segments of the workforce, etc., is still being sorted out.

In this series of four articles, I’ll offer a boots-on-the-ground view of the impact of these last two years on one particular team within one particular tech organization. I’ll explore how, in the active, perhaps “Great Reassessment” of culture and management/top-talent relationships, there may be a way to retain good talent by offering them training, development and skills that could actually empower them to leave, if they so choose. A contrary approach, and reminder of the famous Richard Branson quote below, but as we learn in so many areas of life, giving first creates a relationship that leaves “me first” in the dust.

This weekly series of articles center around a string of conversations between myself and a corporate leader for whom I have great respect, Lee Sellers, the Director Americas Digital Sales – North Region US at Citrix. Lee and I have a long history of engagement, having assisted him in his career exit from Dell as a Sales Director some 13 years ago and then following him in his increasing and influential sales leadership roles from Big Commerce to Citrix. Based on the nature of every tech company’s competition for top talent today, as well as the impact of “the Great Resignation” and “Big Quit” fallout from Covid-19, Lee and I have discussed what a winning corporate culture will look like in 2022 and beyond – at least for as long as the candidate-driven market rules the roost.

In this first installment of four, let’s stop our heads from spinning a bit to assess what’s occurred over the last two years. Then, in subsequent installments, I’ll offer, with front lines input from Lee, some ideas for where to impact corporate culture now so you can rise above the less fit and unaware organizations in your industry. They will be scrambling; conscious and aware organizations will be thriving.

An Annual Theme Party

First, for the sake of this inquiry, let’s consider and explore each year as such:

2020: The Year of Big Money – Young professionals are forever scarred by unprecedented gains.

2021: The Year of Chaotic Transitions – Top talent is lured from their pre-pandemic employers with blue-skies promises.

2022: The Year of The Great Reset – Lower productivity, heavy performance management, and the possible rise of those who stayed put in 2021.

2020: The Year of Big Money

It’s almost shameful to speak of 2020 as anything other than the most collectively horrible era of our lifetimes. Yet, for some industries, particularly high tech, it was a boom year. With so many reorientations required by business and society to adapt to a pandemically floored world, the tech sector was one that raised the roof. In the first year of Covid-19, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 44%, while the S&P 500 rose just 16%.

What that looked like from a boots-on-the-ground, sales-front level was this: relatively young and new, barely-out-of-school sales professionals experienced huge income windfalls. Perhaps only a couple years into their professional sales career, they saw income increases of 30% or more, became mesmerized and, in effect, are now “ruined” for more normal and average times ahead. They paid off debt and then dove further into debt by buying houses and locking themselves into other financial commitments thinking the big money would keep rolling in, that this is what corporate success looks like.

At the same time, the massive and unexpected redirect of corporate efforts to the home-based, online conduct of their jobs and team collaboration left these new success-baptized professionals “virtually” on their own. . .without the standard team glue, watercooler camaraderie and management umbrellaed perimeter in which to feel safe and owned. The random smoking-area connections and social affinity that once held them “at home” was now lost as they actually spent time at home. They experienced both massive prosperity at the same time as unprecedented freedom and detachment in traditionally highly watched roles. This has made them more available to recruiters and blue-skies proposals.

In tech sales, everyone is now expecting to make $180K, even if only a few years out of school. But, when quotas go up as they generally do based on the last year’s production, anomalistic or not, these ruined-for-average-times professionals may have to sell their houses and scale down their lives, get other jobs or have side jobs while, at the same time, deal with performance management. . .because oversight generally arrives when quotas are not being met. Though it may have been smarter to sock the 2020 windfall money away and live off less at the time, they thought it would simply keep going that direction and linearly make 30% more each year.

Then (in next week’s installment) came 2021, The Year of Chaotic Transitions.

Chief Empowerment Optimystic (CEO) Darrell W. Gurney is an executive, business and career advisor; speaker; workshop facilitator; author and licensed spiritual counselor. Founder of CareerGuy.com and TheBackForty.com, Gurney coaches individuals to achieve their highest self-expression and facilitates programs for professional, trade and community groups as well as MBA programs and university alumni organizations nationwide. He is known for his commitment to supporting individuals in creating and living their best life now. His newest book, The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half is now available on Amazon and a series of free difference-maker interviews available here. The book is hailed by Midwest Book Review as “a perfectly timed tool for reevaluation brought on by ‘The Great Resignation’ occurring in today’s world economy.”