Vetting the Organization

Be Prepared

Were you ever a Boy or Girl Scout? Scouts are guided by The Scout Motto, Scout Slogan, Scout Oath, and Scout Law. I learned them over 50 years ago and can still recite them word for word. I am proud to say I am guided by them even today. For those who are unfamiliar, and for others who are familiar but can't quite recall, The Scout Motto is "Be Prepared." That is sound advice in all aspects of life and certainly for any supervisor.

A corollary phrase to the Scout Motto is the proverb "Forewarned is forearmed." One of the earliest documented references to it, is in a letter dated 1685 from Captain Francis Hooke, advising of the dangers of frontier life in the Americas. This letter appeared in John Farmer's The History of New Hampshire in 1831. The proverb was prefaced with the phrase "A word to the wise is enough; the old proverb is forewarned, forearmed."

For emphasis, I would combine the motto and the proverb as follows: Be prepared; forewarned is forearmed. If you seek or welcome being forewarned, you can be forearmed, and so, be prepared. While this advice is important for preparation before your first day of work it is also equally useful every day at work. So how can you "Be Prepared" before the first reporting day?

Go Surfing

Before starting a job, you want to be sure there is congruence and compatibility, between your own personal and professional goals and values and the Mission, Vision and Values of the Organization, and that you are comfortable in embracing them and working in a manner consistent with them. If there is not such congruence your work with the organization will likely be unhappy, unproductive, and short-lived, and could even create a toxic work environment. Visit the organization's website (presuming there is one). It is common for most organizations, public, private, government, for-profit and non-profit, to have one. If you are unable to find one, that might be an indication of an organization that does not keep up with the times, slow to change. Certainly inquire if there is one during the interview process if you have not already found one. Surf the website to learn as much as you can about the organization, its history, current operations, program summaries, brochures, future plans, leadership, annual report, and financial condition.

Ask Human Resources (HR)

If there is no web site, you can certainly ask the contact person at the organization or the HR director there for such items and ask questions you might have after reading them. Don't take it for granted that you will be presented with a job description during the interview process. If you are not, be sure to ask for one. I cannot tell you how often I have been told by an employee, including a supervisory level employee, that he or she did not know all his/ her duties prior to starting work, and were shocked when they learned all they were expected to do after the starting day.

Read

Read the employee handbook, and if there is a separate personnel policies and procedures manual, read it sooner than later, hopefully before you start meeting employees. It will not necessarily make the book of the month club, but it will help you "Be Prepared" and may prevent you from having to back step later when answering employees' queries, only to learn that your answer is inconsistent with policy.

Read the Sacred Documents

I often refer to Mission, Vision, and Values Statements as "Sacred Documents". I would include Strategic Plans too as Sacred Documents. My own 45 year career in management has been in faith-based organizations in the fields of Catholic Healthcare, Catholic Education, and Catholic Charities, and as such, referring to these and others documents as "Sacred Documents" seems understandable, but I do believe the term is equally appropriate for non-faith-based organizations. I don't remember when I started using this reference, whether I coined the use of those words or adopted them from another source. They make sense to me as a way of emphasizing their importance not only in faith-based organizations, but all categories of organizations, faith-based or not, for profit and non-profit, public and private. Webster's dictionary offers several definitions of "sacred". The one I particularly like to embrace in support of calling them Sacred Documents is "set apart for, and dedicated to some person, place, or sentiment ... secured by a sense of justice against any defamation, violation, or intrusion; inviolate." These documents, if committed to, even reverenced, become the "raison d'être" for the organization, giving it meaning and direction, providing a lens through which to make management decisions, assuring steadfastness to Mission, remaining on track towards realizing Vision, utilizing organizational Values in working towards achieving that Vision, and remaining faithful to the Mission as guided by the Strategic Plan (if there is one). There are many definitions for these sacred documents. Let me define each in words that are meaningful to me as a leader.

Mission Statement

In as few words as possible, the Mission Statement explains why the organization exists, what its purpose is. I subscribe to Peter Drucker's admonition that a Mission Statement should fit on a tee shirt. His reasoning and mine is that the Mission Statement needs to be widely known. Ideally you and every employee, when asked what the Mission of the organization is, should be able to answer that question. As such, shorter is better.

Vision Statement

A Vision Statement is a look into the future, perhaps five or ten years down the road. It answers the question "How would you want the organization described in that future time frame question mark?" It challenges the organization and its employees to action, to realize the Vision while remaining faithful to the Mission. When working with organizations in developing a Vision Statement, I suggest they think of it as if they were writing their obituary for five or ten years down the road. I tell them to consider what they want the readers to read about them and their accomplishments. And I conclude that exercise by telling them that very likely, there would be differences in their ten year hence obituary from what would be written about them in the present time. The differences between the present and that time in the future are what need to be addressed to realize the Vision.

Values Statement

A Values Statement is a statement of important principles, the beliefs that become the moral compass of...