Tag Archives: #culture

Culture @ NTR Lab: bonding

Our company loves company events. We have regular monthly pizza parties to celebrate colleagues’ birthdays, guitar playing parties, as well as others kinds of entertainment, such as visiting an extreme park, going to restaurants, etc.

No matter the event, the most important thing is that we do it together. It is typical for us to create a spreadsheet and discuss organizational issues for a forthcoming event.

This summer we also had some outdoors gatherings. Two of the most recent ones were held in Moscow, for our headquarters staff, and the other in Tomsk, for the development staff.

Continue reading Culture @ NTR Lab: bonding

Happy holidays, everyone!

Holiday Wishes from Yana

 

I hope 2016 was as good to you as it was to me!

I’d like to share some of my wins, both personal and professional, with you.

I succeeded in both: my job at NTR Lab and my second job as an artist. I became the CMO of NTR Lab (BIG promotion!) and am enjoying my new position. It’s very challenging, but I’m inspired by the fact that I learn more and more everyday.

My company is growing, too. We are now 120 people strong and celebrated our 16 year birthday this year. ( I attached short video from the celebration) Now we are looking forward to serving our clients even better next year.


On the personal side, my band released an album,  a single and a music video, which became very popular among our fans. Plus, we played about 25 concerts all over the Russia. It’s been so much fun and I am really thrilled.

I also took two wonderful trips this year. The first was deep in the Altay Mountains to for a vacation last summer and this month to London with my boss to work at the Tech Crunch Disrupt conference (great fun).
 
I hope you will find time to share your successes this year and your plans for next year with me in comments.
 
Finally, our entire team and I wish you a great holidays and a happy, healthy, prosperous and successful New Year!
 

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Let’s talk about “good leader”!

 

The last few weeks I’ve been reading many articles about leadership and sharing them and my ideas with you.

Leadership and culture within companies are a relatively new focus among Russian business and I find them fascinating. My friend Miki writes about them for her company and sometimes we have very interesting conversations.

We had one the other night and I think you will find it interesting, too. I’ve italicized Miki’s words and left mine in plain type, so it won’t be confusing.

ленин уорхолмао уорхол

Andy Warhol’s  Red Lenin and Mao

Do people there talk much about leadership?

Yes, we talk about that, but ideas about company culture and its importance are fairly new. Culture was ignored because we thought it was less important for a company then R&D, selling or production. I think Russians never got that it all goes together.

What is your impression of the stuff you have read from the US?

Sometimes I think you guys talk about culture too much and too meticulously. Russians mostly don’t like to talk about culture and leadership. We aren’t used to talking about culture because we are
just starting to recognize its importance.

What do you personally think of the idea of leadership?

Hmm, that’s complicated 🙂 I think that it’s rocket science to be the perfect leader
and to build the right culture in a company. I think it’s mostly depends on your personal
human qualities, but doesn’t depend on economic situation and on the country where you work.

Do you think a person can learn leadership better in school or from doing it and analyzing after?

If you are a strong person with a strategic and analytic mind you still need to learn how to communicate with people, how to take responsibility and how to build the company’s culture in order to be a leader.

You could analyze the experience of great leaders and start to do stuff to get your own experience and analyze that. Mistakes are not bad, as long as you notice, acknowledge and analyze them. Also, it’s good to accept advice from someone more experienced than you, as long as their values are similar to yours.

I think I’m writing very obvious things)) I don’t have any real experience.

Do you think there is such a thing as a “perfect leader”?

I think it’s not about being strong and forcing people; it’s about to be smart enough to be different and flexible if it’s needed.

Leading is getting people to do what you want them to do willingly, but so is manipulation. I think it’s defined as negative, because it’s always used that way. Do you think a good leader must be a good person?

Yes; I don’t think a good leader forces at all, I think he gets the ability to inspire people to follow him. A really good leader is smart enough to listen employee’s opinion and find compromises. He is not strict, he is flexible, he is not egoistic, he always can change his mind if finds out someone’s opinion is more reasonable.

My own opinion is that the actions come and are described as leadership after the fact.

I agree with that. There is a quote from Spinoza (I think) that freedom is a necessity only after you have had it. I believe that a good leader is a flexible person who is able to inspire some people to follow and finds ways to convince the rest without using force.

I agree that culture is a reflection of a leader’s values, but nothing you’ve said has changed my mind. I just don’t believe that leadership is inherently good, “…history tells us that people are more than willing to be shaped in socially unacceptable directions—think Jeff Skilling or Hitler. Of course, if the leader crashes and burns, his constituents will claim that they were led astray unwillingly and/or had no idea what their leader was up to.”

When you or anyone talks about a “good leader” they are referring to someone whose values they share. Founders bring their values, which become the basis of the company culture, but that doesn’t mean the culture is good. I have seen horrible cultures in very successful companies. What is the culture at NTR?

Good, there is a company culture with values which are similar to mine.

And what are your leaders like?

I like Nick’s style. He works hard to build good culture in our company.

So what kind of leader is he? What makes him good?

He is smart and he inspires people and never forces stuff in a bad way (not too strict or manipulating); employees have opportunities to think differently. I always have a chance to argue something he says and defend my own points.

You have asked me, now it is my turn. How would you describe a good leader.

That’s easy; my ideal of a leader was described by Lao Tzu way back in the 6th Century BC. You can read it here.

I would love to continue this discussion by hearing what you think about leadership. What is your “good leader” definition?  And any other thoughts you have. Miki and I promise to respond.