New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has recently published a new set of cultural values on LinkedIn. He is calling them 'Uber's new cultural norms.' Many people are saying that this new approach is an emotionally intelligent approach to cultural norms.
Khosrowshahi is an immigrant whose family moved to the United States just before the Iranian Revolution in 1978. Since taking over Uber, Mr Khosrowshahi has been facing a formidable challenge to change Uber's culture. The company also suffered mishaps and scandals such as claims of sexual harassment, multiple lawsuits, and conflict with regulators.
In an attempt to build Uber's reputation and guide the company to the next level, he spent his first two months meeting Uber teams from around the world. As a newcomer to the company, trying to bring about monumental changes, he faced the risk of alienating its employees. He knew that any culture pushed from the top down, would not work. Thus, he asked the employees to write the new cultural norms for Uber.
They received more than 1200 submissions which were voted on for more than 22,000 times. Khosrowshahi also arranged for more than 20 focus groups. This was his way of making people feel like they were a part of the company's evolution and not just helpless passengers on a ride. And the result was 8 principles that were written by the employees for their company.
The eight new principles:
- We build globally, we live locally. We harness the power and scale of our global operations to deeply connect with the cities, communities, drivers, and riders that we serve, every day.
- We are customer obsessed. We work tirelessly to earn our customers' trust and business by solving their problems, maximising their earnings, or lowering their costs. We surprise and delight them. We make short-term sacrifices for a lifetime of loyalty.
- We celebrate differences. We stand apart from the average. We ensure people of diverse backgrounds feel welcome. We encourage different opinions and approaches to be heard, and then we come together and build.
- We do the right thing. Period.
- We act like owners. We seek out problems and we solve them. We help each other and those who matter to us. We have a bias for action and accountability. We finish what we start and we build Uber to last. And when we make mistakes, we'll own up to them.
- We persevere. We believe in the power of grit. We don't seek the easy path. We look for the toughest challenges and we push. Our collective resilience is our secret weapon.
- We value ideas over hierarchy. We believe that the best ideas can come from anywhere, both inside and outside our company. Our job is to seek out those ideas, to shape and improve them through candid debate, and to take them from concept to action.
- We make big, bold bets. Sometimes we fail, but failure makes us smarter. We get back up, we make the next bet, and we go!
By this exercise, Khosrowshahi has proved to his employees that he values their experiences and wants to learn from them.
This is an excellent way to earn the trust of the people that work for him. Eventually, changes will be needed which involves giving negative feedback, but as a result of winning their trust first, the employees will see them as helpful and constructive criticism.
By inviting people to express themselves and getting to know them, Mr Khosrowshahi has also learned about their challenges, way of working, strengths and weaknesses. This will help him turn the company around. And it teaches us all an invaluable lesson in leadership.
