One of the reasons I decided to join Cribl early-on as a Regional Sales Manager, is because of the culture that the founders, Clint, Ledion and Dritan, instilled in the bones of the company. For me, having an opportunity to build on that foundation and continue to impact the culture as an early employee was something I didn’t want to miss. Throughout my interview process it became clear that the intent to build an organization where differences are valued and welcomed, and where people work together to bring out the best in each other was a priority.
Approaching work with intent, learning quickly, improving constantly, having fun and celebrating wins at every turn inspire “snap your head off the pillow in the morning” type of energy for me, and Cribl appeared to have it in spades. After I joined, my observations turned out to be true and even more importantly, I noticed that people just loved to laugh while working at Cribl, “Irreverent, but Serious”, another core value here at the company.
Being a part of a good sales culture is important, but being an active participant in it is even more important. The people at your company are the culture, so if you aren’t working to build upon it and reinforce its values, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity to impact the speed and direction of the company, and the daily lives of the people involved.
Having been lucky enough to participate in a few great sales cultures, I knew that the idea of a “pay it forward” sales culture was critical. Let me explain….since I’ve started, we’ve quadrupled in size, so the opportunity to interact with and help new sales reps is a regular occurance. During those interactions, I’ll get asked any number of things from which approaches are working for bringing on new clients, to systems questions, to prospecting questions; at the end of each of those conversations, we both learn from each other and I always make sure to say 1) Thank You! and 2) Pay It Forward!
It’s a simple idea but small things like this add up over time. If you make a habit of paying it forward and embed that ideal in your culture, after a couple of years of being in business and bringing on a couple hundred more employees, you end up with an entire team of people who get treated this way by others and want to do the same for the next. Don’t get me wrong, this is easier said than done and nothing is perfect but it only takes one to start a movement right!? 🙂
We not only aim to spread this idea within the company, but we also extend it to our customers and partner community. “Customers first, ALWAYS” is the first of our core values here at Cribl, so it’s an easy jump to make.
Here is an example: I am constantly learning new things in our Community Slack channel, and even in our internal Slack channels — when I learn and see new ideas I’ll immediately think to myself, “That’s a great idea, I know some customers, partners and prospects that could benefit from that.” From there it gets bundled up and out to those who would benefit most, from cheat sheets on Cribl, to blog posts and industry articles, to product release notes and new Cribl certifications; paying it forward to everyone both inside and outside of the company is extremely fulfilling and has the multiplier effect.
One of the overarching themes that I personally try to subscribe to is the idea of servant leadership. Servant leadership has been around for centuries, but has gained popularity in the last 50 years after Robert Greenleaf defined it in a 1970 essay, prompting others to write about the concept as well. The idea is: leaders focused on serving those they lead, rather than expecting to be served, are generational leaders. And we are building a generational company here at Cribl.
This thought of servant leadership has always been in the back of my minds of our founders and continues to drive my pay-it-forward energy each day as we try to grow Cribl into being the best it can be. It spreads good vibes to the people in the communities we interact with and has rewards money can’t buy. If you keep an eye and ear open to opportunities to pay it forward, live a Curious (another Cribl value) way of life and put yourself out there with Transparency (another Cribl value), then people will come to know you and your company as one who is helping others, that core tenant of servant leadership.
If this is the culture you are interested in being an active participant in, come join us, we are hiring and I’ve seen this movie before, it ends REALLY well :). #thebestisyettocome
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