When your culture has gone toxic, everyone feels it. The office is not an enjoyable place to be, there’s little laughter, no camaraderie, and every conversation feels like an uphill battle. If this happens, you need to act – fast. At best, a toxic culture makes everyone miserable; at worst, you’ll get complaints from clients, office flare-ups, and resignations, often with little or no notice.
How to spot a toxic culture
The clues are always there, it’s just sometimes difficult to spot them when a) they creep upon you very gradually, b) you’re distracted and busy, and don’t notice them, and c) if you tend to work from home or out of the office, much of the time.
Toxic clues to watch out for:
- Gossiping
- Muttering/low-level complaining
- Negative language
- Resistance and even insolence
- Lack of punctuality
- Talking negatively about clients and one another
- Complaining
- Lack of teamwork, eg no one cleans the kitchen
Toxicity and poor culture adversely affect productivity and performance, often profoundly. When the opposite is true, and you have a positive and enjoyable working culture, company performance also increases. If you feel the culture of your company needs improving, you’ve probably already late in taking remedial action. Building a positive culture is like building a wall; you need to build it from the bottom up, making sure each layer is solid before moving on to the next.
For example, if you try to fix a negative culture by taking the team out bowling, when you haven’t yet created and implemented company core values, you’ll probably have to suffer an evening of sulkiness, cliques and gossip, or even no one wanting to come along.
You need to fix your culture, brick by brick, painstakingly and methodically. Put the work in now, and you’ll be glad you did later. Not only will a positive culture make the office a more pleasurable environment, and the company perform better financially, a great culture also makes recruitment easier and more successful.
Now we know how important a positive culture is, here’s an action plan to get yours back on track within three months:
MONTH 1
Hold a team meeting
The first step in beginning your culture fix is to arrange a team meeting with the whole team, at the first possible opportunity. Turn off/divert the phones, buy a nice breakfast and commit an hour to a whole-team meeting (more if you have a team larger than 6-8). Explain that you want to improve team morale and culture, and set out your action plan for doing this. Tell your team that you will be holding one-way reviews with each of them to discover how they feel about their role and working environment. Emphasise that you are committed to making significant improvements that everyone will benefit from.
Create a commitment to weekly team meetings
If you don’t already run weekly meetings with your team, explain that these will now happen, no matter what. Everyone needs to commit to taking an hour (or more) each week out of their diary to prioritise these meetings. Share with your team the reasons for these meetings:
- To share wins
- News and updates
- Report progress on projects and plans
- For team training
- Also add the social element, (plus a nice breakfast, if you decide to provide it each week, as we do)
Enhance the office environment
While you have everyone in the team meeting, host a discussion on the office environment. Ask them to rate each element, for example:
- Décor
- Ambience/atmosphere
- Comfort
- Client-facing area
- Toilets
- Kitchen and facilities
- Frontage/entrance
- Private areas
- Resources
Within this meeting, create a list of improvements you can action straight away, in days, not weeks. You’ll continue this process in the 1-to-1 meetings, and in doing so, create visible proof that you will listen to your team, and carry out your promises.
Give them your time – a meeting with each member of the team. Make sure they know that these meetings are one-way reviews. In other words, the purpose of these meetings is not to review their performance, instead it’s an opportunity for each member of your team to air their frustrations, tell you anything that needs fixing, and generally for them to have a good moan. This will clear the air, and even though these complaints may be hard for you to hear without defending yourself or the company, not only will you inevitably hear useful improvements you can make, more importantly, you’re demonstrating you are willing to really hear each person, and so earn their trust.
If you rarely (or ever) hold staff reviews, your team will be understandably mistrustful and anxious about the purpose and outcome of these reviews. Make your first review with the least loyal team member, and approach it with humility and kindness. Word will soon spread that these reviews are positive and that you as the boss actually care what people think. Win over each team member in turn, ending with the most loyal and committed ones. In each review, look for small improvements you can make to their environment or conditions. You’re seeking opportunities to prove your commitment to each team member in turn, so make notes on any suggestions they make, no matter how small. Whether it’s a request for a new toaster in the kitchen, or buying a laptop stand, every small action by you will be noticed and appreciated. Make these changes quickly and without fuss or crowing, and the office atmosphere quickly improve.
MONTH 2
Mission, vision and values
In your first team meeting in month two, it’s time to determine your company’s mission, vision and values, if you haven’t already. If you have your mission, vision and values determined and documented, revisit them as a team, edit if necessary and recommit to them. If possible, have a posted designed and printed as a visual reminder of what your company stands for.
Weed out bad apples
There are two ways to make sure every person on your team is the right fit; the first is to identify the misfits, and terminate their employment. This isn’t always possible or appropriate, depending on their length of tenure, reason for the termination, and a hundred other HR issues and obstacles that may prevent you from simply sacking them.
The second way is much more organic and often kinder; once you begin your programme of improvements, elements like one-to-ones, training sessions and team events will naturally cause those team members who aren’t committed, loyal and motivated to simply decide they don’t want to work for you any longer. The more you seek to develop someone who isn’t right for your company, the quicker they’ll look for another job.
To be clear, I’m not talking about managing these people out of your company. That approach is unfair, and potentially even illegal. I’m suggesting that when you apply a greater emphasis on team culture, people will either be onboard and motivated, or mentally checked out and ready to leave. Those who do decide to leave will probably be with your blessing and a positive reference.
Team treats
Treating your team is not a one-off activity, and nor should it be related to, or conditional on, any performance or results being achieved. There’s a time and place to reward and/or incentivise company successes, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Some ideas for team treats are:
- Monthly nights out (we have a £20 per person budget for ours)
- Seasonal treats eg advent calendars and Easter eggs
- Cake days
MONTH 3
Get training on track
Now you’ve met with each team member individually at least twice, it’s time to start formalising their training and development. We manage this journey through our proprietary ‘S.T.A.R Folders’ (Successes, Trainings and Achievements Record Folders).
A successful documented training provision includes:
- Team training – we do this weekly as part of our team meetings
- Training essentials – the foundations of your company are topics such as telephone training, grooming guidelines, and how to greet an office visitor. These need teaching to every team member, and refreshing often.
- Role-specific training – each team member needs their own list of training topics, according to their role and responsibilities.
In addition to the formalised scheduled training you give to your team, you may want to enhance their professional development with ad hoc and additional developmental opportunities, such as:
- Special training sessions by external experts (always record these)
- Visits to local historic homes
- Museums or art galleries
- Speaker events
When your workplace culture has become toxic, it’s crucial to take immediate action to turn things around. A toxic environment not only dampens morale but can lead to serious issues like employee resignations and client complaints.
To fix your culture, start by identifying the signs of toxicity—gossip, negativity, and lack of teamwork are key indicators. Implement a structured plan: hold team meetings to discuss improvements, enhance the office environment, and engage in one-on-one reviews to listen to employee concerns. By addressing these issues methodically, you can rebuild a positive culture that fosters collaboration and boosts overall performance, creating a more enjoyable workplace for everyone.
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When you’re ready, here are 3 ways we can help you:
1. Reach out for a call with Sam – choose from three different calls to help you overcome your specific challenges. All free and without strings. Grab a coffee and let’s get to work.
2. Come and spend the day with Phil and me, at AshdownJones’ HQ, in our beautiful Lake District. Meet the team, check out our systems and marketing, and enjoy meeting like-minded (non-competing) agency owners. We’ll even put on lunch! Book your place here.
3. Join our Facebook community of super-ambitious independent agents.
Hope to catch up with you soon and find out how you’re growing your business!
Sam
