Picking the right organisation is vital to your success. 48% of the success of chief executives and other top directors is down to personal qualities, such as drive, courage, tenacity and ability to communicate. However, 52% of success is down to choosing the right environment for you.

Choose the wrong organisation and however clear your vision, sharp your intelligence and brilliant your communication skills, you will either not do very well or may indeed be fired. So what makes a good organisation depends very much on your personality. A cut-and-thrust type may not thrive in a cosy, collegiate atmosphere. A team player will not enjoy a highly individualistic firm. You may not fit, for instance, if all the senior management come from the school of hard knocks while you went to private-fee-paying schools.

Choosing the right context for yourself is highly important. While to outsiders there may be little to choose between, say, one telecoms company and another, or one professional firm or another, or one local (or national) government organisation and another, the culture can be hugely different and that can make the difference as to whether you fit and thrive, or don’t — and wilt.

For instance, in one culture it may be fine to talk openly about organisation difficulties to the press or staff. This might be seen as open management. In another culture such openness could be seen as making a bad situation worse, being a blabbermouth or even out and out disloyalty. One organisation may encourage team spirit, another may place emphasis on individual contributions.

So how do you find out which company is for you? To some extent, it is largely a matter of trial and error and very few successful people have managed to avoid at least one company they didn’t feel comfortable with. However, as is often the case, research can help you avoid some mistakes. Find out as much as you can about any company you might want to work for. Ask people who work for the organisation too. Ideally, you want to work for a company where you respect and can learn from your boss, where you can advance your career on merit, rather than on marrying the boss’s daughter, and where there is scope for training.

All things being equal it is better to work for a company where the employees take pride in their place of employment and enjoy working at it, rather than one where they do not. However, it has to be said that at the outset of your career, you may not be inundated with offers and it could be very much a question of who picks you. Nevertheless, as you progress to more senior levels, picking the right environment matters more and more. When you do make a move you need to quickly assess whether you believe in the organisation and like the way it is run, and whether you will be able to move up the ladder within it.

A good analogy is that of family life. In a well-run family each member knows the others’ strengths and weaknesses and can work with that. In one torn apart by squabbles, members are either intolerant of each other’s weaknesses or jealous of the others’ strengths. What may be highly acceptable in one family may be unacceptable in another — but both may be equally happy.

If you realise you don’t fit, or your values don’t chime with the organisation, you need to start looking for another job. However, do remember that, while it might be wise to move once, moving repeatedly within a short period can be damaging. In order to have a better idea of whether you and your organisation are well-matched, ask yourself the questions below. Working out the answers to these will help you in a huge variety of ways. It will help you to see how best to obtain answers that will suit the organisation and address its needs when you are presented with problems. It will help you work out how you fit in and also the best way to approach office politics.

Exercise: are you and the organisation well-matched?

Ask yourself the following questions:

1 Do I recognise the critical issues in this organisation and my department? Do I believe I can play a role in solving them?

2. How is this company differentiated both externally and internally from its competitors? (To outsiders Pepsi and Coca-Cola may seem similar — but they may feel very different to their employees.)

3. How do I as an individual add value to this organisation?

4. How do I get on with my colleagues, my bosses? Is it a strain or do I understand where they are coming from?

5. How well do I understand my own character, motivation, drive? Do my character, motivation and drive find echoes in the commercial objectives of this organisation?