Balancing performance and culture at work

When I first joined the company, I was the first one on the team. My sights were set on expanding into APAC.

Everything revolved around securing product-market fit, landing flagship customers, and building our brand in the region. My mind was constantly on one thing: Outcomes.

If any activity did not contribute directly to revenue or help customers, I was going to avoid doing it.

As the team grew, I realized I had been so focused on performance and pipeline that I was not giving enough attention to culture.

My manager reminded me that as the first hire, my role had a lot of influence in the company far beyond revenue and some do look up to me.

I have been gradually shifting my focus at work from a sole emphasis on team performance and pipeline to a more balanced approach.

These are a few areas I’m focusing on improving:

1. Be more nurturing and patient

I have been incredibly fortunate in my career to work with exceptional people. Many were already well-trained or naturally gifted, requiring little management. Together, we consistently achieved success, quarter after quarter.

As I never had to coach, I never really developed strong skills in giving thoughtful, constructive feedback. When I finally had to step into that role, I realized I was not as equipped as I would like to be.

Since then, I have been making changes:

Adjusting expectations: I’ve learned not to compare people. Everyone grows at their own pace, and my role is to support that growth, encourage innovative ways of doing things and not to 拔苗助长. People develop in their own time.

Changing my language: Our enablement leader taught me the power of words. Instead of focusing on “skills gaps,” I now talk about “growth opportunities.” A simple shift in language creates a more positive environment for development. I’m also learning to offer more praise, even if I used to believe that all these nice words are just 花言巧语。

Seeking support: I’m now involving leaders more often, learning from their coaching styles, and relying on their guidance when needed.

2. Be present and make space to socialize

Our office days are Tuesday and Thursday, but I noticed something: Despite being physically present, I was not really engaging with anyone beyond my immediate team.

If I was not going to make space for people beyond the four other people sitting on the same desk as me, then what was the point of coming into the office?

So, I’ve decided to change that by:

Lightening my schedule: I am cutting back on external meetings on office days to leave more room for conversations and building connections.

Hot-desking: I make a point to sit with different teams throughout the day to interact with a wider range of colleagues.

Lunching with someone new outside of my team: I aim to have lunch with one person outside my immediate team each week.

My manager’s words really resonated: "You’re not performing surgery—there’s no life at stake here." This helped me realize that I can step back from being hyper-efficient and focus more on fostering relationships.

Fewer external meetings on office days mean more opportunities to connect, help onboard new colleagues, and truly enjoy those in-person moments.

3. Step up more

I realized that as one of the more tenured members of the team, a lot of important knowledge sits with me—things I’ve come to take for granted.

Knowing how helpful this could be for others, I have committed to answering at least two company or product-related questions each week.

It takes just 1-2 minutes, but the impact is huge, helping my teammates get what they need faster.

I’ve also started being more proactive, volunteering for tasks outside my usual scope. For instance, when our MD went on holiday, I offered a couple of ideas for how I could support him.

He ended up selecting two for me to implement, and it felt great to contribute in a new way.

4. Having a strategy and communicating it

The past year, I have been operating mostly on instinct. We needed to prove value quickly so my focus was quick wins. I focused on deals on their own versus taking a step back and looking at things at an account level.

Besides circumstances, I guess this mode of operating was also partly due to my background. I specialized in startups and SMEs for the past few years before joining AlphaSense.

These organizations were much less complex. In a company with less than 1,000 people, typically CxO or VP can just decide and sign off.

In companies with a much larger size, things are different.

One of my customers reminded me that in organisations like his, people tend to operate like those 后宫妃嫔 with “everyone trying to 争宠 (win favour)” and sometimes each department does not talk to each other”.