3 Ways Leaders Can Fix Toxic Company Culture

swarbhanu77
May 13, 2022
4 min read

Updated: Apr 7, 2023

What to do when you need a new culture by Monday? - a quick 3 minute read.

A dysfunctional culture can kill your company's productivity. It has the potential of dropping you into a cesspool of lawsuits, with bad publicity slow poisoning your brand.

So what do you do if you find your in an organization where toxic behavior is rampant?

The first thing you must realize is that culture takes time to change. Think about what you would need to do if you had to change the dynamics of a family. It does not happen overnight.

We have never been in a world more chaotic in culture in our lifetime. How do you unify the culture in disparate offices into one company culture especially in the face of extended remote work?

Here are 3 quick and easy ways you can begin to fundamentally change your company's culture for the better.

Tip #1 - Invest In A Culture Bank Based on Empathy.

Create a culture bank to draw from during crises. Each time you and your team support each other, you contribute to the culture bank.

Ask yourself:

How are you going to protect and grow the fabric of your company culture?
How will you make contributions to your culture bank?
How will you build relationships? How will you get to know each other?

Lead with empathy and never keep parts of your life separate because they really aren't. Show empathy in everything.

The tools to motivate and bond are there. You can take a look at our product, The Toot App, a suite of 5 different brainstorming tools all rolled into one product, that allow you to brainstorm with your team in 5 different ways.

All you need to do is assimilate these tools to the processes you use in your organization.

Tip #2 - Create The Sense of Tribe.

Invest in people despite uncertainty. Good workers never want to feel stuck. When they find that you are helping them grow, you will earn their gratitude and loyalty.

There is no more powerful feeling in business than the feeling of belonging to a Tribe.

Everyone longs for a sense of belonging. And in a tribe, it is the role of the chieftain to find how everyone can become better versions of their selves.

Delegate decision making to the junior members of your tribe. Empower them and fill them with confidence, all the time having conversations with them around the purpose and meaning of their work, and how it is important in the bigger scheme of things.

Tip #3 - Be Consistent In Your Message.

Culture develops through consistent messaging. Internal and external, verbal and non-verbal. Reach out to people with a very tenuous connection. Do not leave anyone out. Include everyone in discussions and brainstorming even if the subject may vary.

The biggest motivation for any team player is always to be included in discussions that matter. This is as true in a business setting as in a marriage. Always try to make people feel that they are a partner.

Listen to your workers when they describe what helps them get up in the morning.

Because this is really what makes them tick.

Share with them the purpose and meaning of their work. Let them reinvent themselves and learn something new every day or every week. Bring people in on your vision and welcome everyone who wants to contribute to it. Allow them to make decisions and contribute to the vision their own way, as long as it does not interfere with team plans.

Remember that almost everyone in your team is only able to see a tiny portion of the business. Your main job as a manager is to communicate clearly how everything fits together in the whole scheme of things.

Be super clear in your briefs. You can use a physical whiteboard to brainstorm each other's thoughts. Or you can use a digital whiteboard, such as what The Toot App offers, to help you in remote or hybrid work environments. You can use the Toot App's WorkTable to list out action steps.

Fix toxic environments preemptively by stopping gossip and discouraging the blaming of other people. Toxic behavior thrives whenever there is a lack of accountability. Never let people come to you and talk about other people as this can affect your judgement. Instead, encourage direct dialogue and be fair. This will decrease insecurity and greatly boost the productivity of your team.

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A Good Team Will Build Your Vision For You.

But A Great Team Will Chase You to Accomplish Your Vision For You.

If you would like to know more about how you can build a Rock Star team that will help you achieve your vision, you can try The Toot App.

The Toot App is an entirely new and exciting way to:

create a compelling vision and a roadmap together with your team,
build trust and belief in your journey together,
lay the foundation of a strong company culture.
and by doing all the above, build you a great team.

Its a new SaaS app that works on the cloud, and if you want a motivated workforce that is fully aligned with your vision and is 100% invested in your success without you needing to chase them around to get things done..... Then This Is For You.

Ask yourself this,