Maree's Blog

Warning Signs of a Toxic Culture

Details

13 July 2017

There are many warning signs to a poor culture, some are spoken about openly, some are known but only acknowledged privately, if at all.

Do you hear people in your organisation say the following, or maybe you say this yourself?

• We don’t communicate well
• If only we communicated better
• My team don’t speak up in meetings
• Our team meetings suck
• My team has a number of non-performers
• My team is too busy and not focussing on what’s important
• We have an under-performer which is impacting the rest of the team, and there isn’t anything being done to hold them accountable


• My team is toxic, there is no trust
• We don’t really know what we are doing
• This team have been together for a long time. They are stuck in their ways, some don’t get on together and I don’t think they ever will
• There is the feeling of ‘been there done that – it didn’t change things’ and a real resistance to change or trying to do things better

Maybe secretly you wonder if it is you, and your leadership style

• I don’t understand what do I need to do, to make this team work?
• Could I do this better?
• I actually don’t understand how some of my team think
• I don’t seem to fit in with these people
• I don’t want to change who I am or feel expected to become someone I’m not, to fit in at this level

How do we move a team from being chaotic to calm, from toxic to co-creating? A team who has high levels of trust between each other, are high performing, productive, engaged and operate in an environment that is energising and a fun place to be.

There are ways to create the types of team we want to be part of, and develop the culture that is closely aligned to our values. It is absolutely essential that leaders drive this, though each person in the workplace can work towards it!

This is an excerpt from my latest white paper. If you would like to read more please contact me for a copy.

Maree