How to Change a Toxic Culture From the Front?

"Lead by actions; earn and build trust; genuinly care and exhibite integrity; getting things done by working hard and smart and show positive attitudes and offer support" (Corporate Governance Institute, 2022)

You probablly already know the tell-tale sign of a toxic work environment.

A toxic work environment is when:

• people's voices are not being heard

• people don't feel safe to speak out

• people's contribution is not valued

• confidentiality is not maintained

A toxic work environment makes people fight, flight or freeze. Performance drops and productivity can drop down to 1/3. The risk of being shamed outweights the benefits of speaking up which leads to communication break down and dysfunctional teams.

I have worked with line manager and chairs of comapnies who are micromanagers with an ego the size of an elephant. Rarely did this type of manager invites ideas, they like to make decisions on their own. Power and ownership is seldom shared.

It felt particulary harsh for me when managers like this choose to communicate negative feedback eletronically, rather than face-to-face. It makes me feel very uncomfortable because there was no way I can interpret the tone of voice without hearing and seeing the facial expression or body language of the other side. This kind of communication ususally makes hot flushes rise from my guts to my head and it is a physical symptom that I can associate with anger and shame. If I do not acknowledge and address it, it can sometimes manifest into another physcial symtom, such as a cold sore or an ulcer.

In my experience, there is little an employee can do to fix a toxic environment unless changes in the board and management level happen. This is becuse employees perceive that the risk of backfire or not being taken seriously is usually greater than the probability of changing the culture.

Leaders, managers and directors in business and organisations should lead from the front and start thinking of your employee as your customers because employee has the right to be treated with respect and care.

The Welsh Government reports (2022) that workplace culture directly impacts retention. Studies reveal that a third of job seekers would let go of their perfect job if the workplace culture wasn’t a good fit. And over 70% of workers cited corporate culture as an important factor influencing their decision to work at any given company. Find original report here.

The costs of high employee turn-over are:

• deterioration of staff morale

• loss of learning and development from exiting staff

• cost of hiring new recruit

• cost of training and induction for new recruit

What should leaders in busines and organisations do to become Role Models for good culture?

"Lead by actions; earn and build trust; genuinly care and exhibite integrity; getting things done by working hard and smart and show positive attitudes and offer support" (Corporate Governance Institute, 2022)

Start putting Code of ethics in place to guide your company to serve the best interest of all stakeholders and ethical conduct before profibility. When your comapny culture is healthy, employees will contribute more and the wellbeing of your business will improve in the long run.