How to turn around a toxic workplace culture
We’ve all either been there, or heard horror stories. The damage a toxic culture can wreak on an organisation’s performance and reputation, and especially on the people in it, can be extensive and long-lasting.
So how does it happen? I’m going to kick off with a view that might be a little controversial: the culture within a group - whether it’s a team or an organisation - comes directly from its leader.
I can understand if your instant reaction is, ‘culture isn’t determined by one person! It comes from the collective, lived values and behaviours of the whole group’ (a.k.a. ‘how we do things around here’). And that is true if you’re talking about what helps perpetuate a toxic culture. But the source is, ultimately, the person in the top spot. When you become a leader, it flows downward from the way you do things around here.
Are you a people leader? You are being watched.
Your leadership is like a sequined ball gown: every single move you make catches the light; even the slightest shift grabs people’s attention. Whether you know it or not, and whether you like it or not, people are examining your words and behaviours under a microscope.
To make it even trickier, you are shaping the culture by the things you DON’T say or do just as much as by what you DO say and do. The upside of all this is that as a leader you have it within your power to reset a toxic culture - whether or not you were the one that created it in the first place.
So, when you find yourself at the helm of a toxic culture and you decide to take up the challenge of transforming it into a positive, engaging, inspiring, high performance culture, the best place to start is with you.
How people leaders can turn around a toxic workplace culture
Here are 5 simple ways you can use your eye-catching sequins to get you off to a good start:
1.Choose to lead
Toxic cultures often have a vacuum where people-leadership should be. It doesn’t matter how many ‘people leadership roles’ there are if no-one in those roles is choosing to lead. If you’ve taken a leadership position for the prestige, the pay packet, the ‘I need this role/company on my resume’, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.
By choosing to lead, you are saying yes to connecting and communicating with people, yes to focusing people on what’s important and what’s not, yes to developing yourself and your team and yes to enabling people to solve their own problems. If this isn’t what you signed up for, do everyone a favour and hang up your boots or stilettos now. If you’re in the ‘hell yes’ camp, then let’s continue.
2. Check your mindset
What are you telling yourself right now? Is it along the lines of, ‘It’s a basket case! There’s no way I can turn this around!’ or is it more like, ‘What might I be able to do?’. As Professor of Psychology Carol Dweck, known for her work on mindset, says, “In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, ‘oh, I’m going to reveal my weaknesses’ [fixed mindset] you say ‘great, here’s a chance to grow’.”
The silver lining in a toxic culture is that there’s not much you can do to make it worse. You have nothing to lose! It gives you free rein to experiment with new techniques. Channel your inner scientist: run a few experiments, observe what happens. What works? Do more of that. What doesn’t work? Stop doing that. When you experiment there are only two things that can happen; you win, or you learn. And when you’re learning, you’re still winning.
3. Use your values as a compass
Decision-making in a toxic culture can be complicated. Mixed messages, politics, cliques, conflicts of interest and ‘patch protection’ can impede your ability to assess priorities and identify solutions.
The answer is values. Whilst your organisation’s values might be ready for a refresh (and this may be an important step in transforming the culture) you can, in the interim, get really clear on your personal values. Through which values do you intend to lead?
When you’re clear about your values you can use them like a GPS to guide your decision making. Is this the honest thing to do? Is this the fair thing to do? They enable you to make consistent and constructive decisions, clarify the best way forward, and weather the toxic storm.
4. Leverage your unique skills and talents
As you set out to transform the culture of your team or organisation, consider what your leadership strengths and development opportunities are. What skills have you used successfully in the past to influence others and implement change? What failures did you experience, what did you learn and how might you do things differently this time?
You have a unique set of skills, talents and previous experiences that you can employ in this situation. And don’t stop at just leveraging your strengths: utilise others’ strengths as well. It’s important to ask for help in areas where you’re not feeling confident. When you model asking for help, you demonstrate that it’s ok to not know all the answers, and you give permission for your team to do the same.
5. Look for your learnings
If you don’t have any failures, you’re going to greatly reduce your learnings. You’re not being courageous enough. Through failure comes learning and through learning comes growth. The behaviours that created this situation are not the ones that will lead to the solution. You have to try different things. Ask yourself this question: ‘if I were to get an injection of courage, what’s the most radical thing I might do?’
Again, by doing this, you are actively modelling the behaviours you want your people to emulate. It’s imperative that it is accompanied by a clear message that failures and setbacks are opportunities to learn and do better next time.
So pull that sequined ball gown on, be bold and bedazzle your team with your brilliance. The success and wellbeing of your team is in your hands.
For a little more on culture, read Chapter 3 of my book, ‘on your marks, get set… LEAD!’ or check out our favourite culture guru, Simon Sinek - watch his talk, ‘How to start a cultural transformation’ here.
Are you a new leader? Read about the #1 challenge for new leaders (and how to overcome it).
