These 5 things are destroying your company culture ☠️

25 Jun

This one goes out to all the business leaders, big and small - we are all growing.
The constant that should be on your mind (aside from your P&L) is your people.

If you are honest with yourself, how does your leadership or management team treat your people?

When was the last time you checked in?

Whenever it was, make sure to measure your self against these 5 company culture killers. They are big ones!

Lack of Freedom

How much freedom do your people have? Are there open, inclusive spaces that are and welcoming to fresh ideas and more importantly, different and potentially cultural perspectives?

People need to feel able to express themselves authentically. This goes as deep as how they choose to dress, wear their hair and express their opinions. A strong team comes from respectively listening and crucially HEARING every member of their employees.

Are employees able to give and receive feedback without fear of judgment or persecution? If you are struggling with the idea of feedback and how best to facilitate this, or even start a wider cultural shift toward openly embracing the concept of “Fearless Feedback”, then we should talk. SLC runs incredible workshops directly to your business to set you up for success when it comes to culture and “Fearless Feedback”. Click here for more info.

2. Poor Communication (At all levels)

How transparent are you with your leaders? How transparent are your leaders with your team?

If you're honest with yourself, are many of your team running on auto-pilot because it’s “just how we do things here”? Or are there regular communications across the business, not just highlighting what is happening - but crucially why.

Do you run regular company surveys (NPP - Net Promoter for People)? Do you disclose the results and follow up with, “Heres what we heard, what we are doing about it, what we aren’t doing and why”.

If you’re not, guess what… you might not be communicating as effectively as you could be.

3. Micro - Management

This one hopefully speaks for its self - but if this is you, you may be dealing with the next point, so please read on.

4. Lack of Trust

Trust is the foundation of hiring and leading people. Think back to when you first got hired for something. How did that feel?

Validating? Exciting? Even a boost in confidence? Well that’s because someone hired you to put the skills you had or were willing to grow into a project.

It was most likely a time when you were able to add your flare and make your mark to someone’s dream, the only way you know how.

Now imagine you’ve just given those feelings to someone else, and for some reason feel the need to check-in with them every day about things they were hired to do. Imagine that you felt they couldn’t do that job because of their choices in location, working hours or religious holidays.

See how weird that seems?

When you hire someone, it’s to do a job better than you could ever do it. So naturally their way will be different to how you would do it.

I’m not saying don’t train them. Please do. Empower them with your incredible company values. Set them up for success, and then - trust them to do it to the best of their ability - after all - you hired them.

A lack of trust in your team is a lack of trust in your own hiring abilities and if that is the case, Click here and we can make super charge your hiring processes and create some long lasting change.

5. Letting Poor Behaviour Slide

Initially this sounds a little harsh, but the principle of poor behaviour on repeat is one that cripples so many businesses as they step on egg shells when it comes to people and behaviours within company culture.

One thing is for sure, if poor behaviour goes un checked, it spreads and you’ll be left with a culture you didn’t see coming and a need to make massive big shifts.

So what does catching poor behaviour look like?

Well, Feedback is the first step, as in the moment as possible and certainly not publicly. Common issues are persistent lateness and bad language. In which case feedback and recording are your best resources. But don’t forget to check in first and ask “is everything okay?” - and actually mean it.

You have incredible people in your company so when they act out, it’s going to be because something else is going on. Sometimes just opening up room to talk will do wonders.

If things continue and it is effecting other members of the team then formal proceedings can happen according to your policies. The main point here is never assume and always lead with discovering more before dealing out the punishment.

It’s the respectful thing to do.

So there you have it, 5 things that are destroying your company culture - and ways to improve them.
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If your business is in need of a few shake ups, or youd like a call to see how you can better impact your companies culture then check out