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25 Ways To Transform A Toxic Work Culture

The document outlines 25 strategies for transforming a toxic work culture, emphasizing the importance of accountability from leadership and the need for external expertise. Key recommendations include promoting flexible work arrangements, addressing pay inequalities, and fostering open communication channels for feedback. Ultimately, it stresses that cultural change requires active engagement from leaders to model desired behaviors and create a supportive environment for employees.

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Waleed K. Mohamed
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104 views27 pages

25 Ways To Transform A Toxic Work Culture

The document outlines 25 strategies for transforming a toxic work culture, emphasizing the importance of accountability from leadership and the need for external expertise. Key recommendations include promoting flexible work arrangements, addressing pay inequalities, and fostering open communication channels for feedback. Ultimately, it stresses that cultural change requires active engagement from leaders to model desired behaviors and create a supportive environment for employees.

Uploaded by

Waleed K. Mohamed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

25 ways to change a

toxic work culture


Take accountability
1 at the top
Bad culture starts at the top and
works its way down.

Leadership must be willing to take


accountability and ownership of
the environment they have allowed
to fester.

This is the baseline for rebuilding


trust with employees.
Bring in external
2 experts to help
It will be nearly impossible for the
people who allow a broken culture
to take root to address the
problem on their own.

Bring in an external voice, whether


a key new hire or an external
consultant, to act as the change
manager and determine an action
plan in consultation with
employees.
Leadership
3 development
Many managers inherit bad habits
and carry them with them as they
advance.

Put leadership through ongoing


development training on hard and
soft skills to help them reform their
leadership approach.

A one-off “check the box” training


isn’t good enough for real change.
Re-commit to the
4 core values
Most companies have core values
they’re “supposed” to uphold, but
they end up being just words on
a wall.

Managers must re-commit to


leading and reshaping the culture
with the core values front and
centre at every level of the
organization.
Stop performance
5 punishment
High performers cannot stay high
performers if you punish them for
being great.

Stop asking them to put the team’s


Everest-sized workload on their
back like a corporate sherpa.

Work with your lower performers


to get their performance up.
Tie compensation
6 to improvements
Tie leader compensation and
bonuses to meaningful culture
metrics like retention, employee
happiness scores, etc.

This puts the power back into the


employees’ hands and incentivizes
leaders to make real change.

This is how many sales leaders get


paid already.
Get employee buy-in
7 to culture change
Change requires buy-in at all levels.

Management is not the sole


reason for toxic cultures. It’s also
the office gossip and the cliques.

Work with a change manager to


help employees see the benefit of
doing things differently and
building a better workplace as a
collective opportunity.
Address pay gaps
8 & inequalities
Pay inequity breeds resentment &
mistrust, especially when
leadership avoids the issue.

Conduct a full compensation audit


and share the results openly, even
if they're uncomfortable.

Create clear action plans with


timelines to address any
discovered gaps.
End the “always
9 on” culture
Teams should not fall apart if
employees go on a two-week
holiday.

9 out of 10 times, that “emergency”


is not real and could be dealt with
tomorrow.

It is on leaders to prioritize and


stay out of reactivity.
Allow for flexible
10 working & hybrid
Employees shouldn’t have to
choose between their child’s
dance recital and work.

While overlap for teams is


essential, the world will not end
because someone shifts their
work hours or comes in on a
Saturday one time so they can go
to the doctor with their sick mom
on a single Tuesday.
Reform promotion
11 practices
Stop promoting based solely on
technical skills or tenure (or
worse... favouritism).

Make cultural leadership a key


criterion for advancement.

Create clear paths to leadership


that don't require stepping on
others and provide transparency
on what it takes to move up.
Let go of the
12 bad actors
Teams that are connected are
more engaged and collaborative.

A study out of Harvard found that


66% of employees are less
productive when forced to work
with coworkers they don’t like.

This includes management that is


unwilling to change.
Create clear
13 accountability
Unclear consequences for toxic
behaviour create confusion and
enable bad actors.

Establish and communicate clear


consequences for culture-
damaging behaviour.

Apply these consequences


consistently, regardless of level
or performance.
Champion work-life
14 integration
True work-life balance is a myth,
but stop expecting it to be 70%
work and 30% life 100% of the time.

If you want people to be more


productive, you must give them the
space to be people with full lives.

Otherwise, expect your people to


burn out big time.
Rebuild broken
15 trust bridges
Years of broken promises create
deep cynicism that must be
actively addressed.

Start with small, visible


commitments and deliver on
them consistently.

Acknowledge past failures openly


and show how new actions will be
different.
Model vulnerable
16 leadership
Leaders who never admit mistakes
or show weakness create cultures
of perfectionism and fear.

Share your own mistakes and


learning moments openly.

Show that it's safe to be human at


work and create a psychologically
safe environment.
Measure what
17 really matters
Stop focusing solely on financial
metrics and start measuring team
and company well-being.

Share these metrics as


prominently as you share
business results.

See HR’s concerns and


suggestions as top priorities
instead of bottom issues.
Minimize outdated
18 bureaucracy
Unnecessary processes and
approvals signal distrust and drain
your employees’ motivation.

Leaders should eliminate pointless


or outmoded rules and streamline
decision-making procedures.

Push authority down to the lowest


appropriate level.
Reset power
19 dynamics
Traditional top-down power
structures often enable toxic
behaviour and silence dissent.

Give teams more autonomy over


their work and decisions that
affect them directly.

Create mechanisms for bottom-up


influence in strategic decisions.
Create real
20 feedback loops
Anonymous surveys once a year
aren't enough. Create ongoing
channels for honest feedback.

Leaders must actively seek critical


feedback and demonstrate they're
acting on it.

Share both positive and negative


feedback openly to build trust in
the process.
Kill the excessive
21 meeting culture
Excessive meetings drain
productivity and morale.

Leaders must model better


meeting habits. Decline
unnecessary meetings & empower
others to do the same.

Replace status meetings with


async updates and save face time
for meaningful collaboration.
Invest in tools &
22 technology
Invest in solutions that automate
mundane tasks, provide better
cross-functional collaboration and
data analysis, and make
employees’ lives easier.

Invest in contractor support to get


initiatives in place that help make
these rollouts faster for your
employees.
Kill phrases that
23 harm innovation
"That's how we've always done it."
The ultimate killer of every million-
dollar idea.

"Let's table this for now." These are


the words that ensure young,
enthusiastic talent check out.

Find ways to innovate and reward


people who bring good ideas.
Prioritize mental
24 health support
Mental health isn't just a nice-to-
have anymore. It's a critical part of
workplace wellbeing.

Invest in comprehensive mental


health resources & normalize their
use through leader modelling.

Create clear policies that protect


employee rest and mental health.
Be the change
25 employees need
Leaders must model the
behaviours of change for
employees to feel safe in changing
theirs.

Culture only shifts when leaders


are actively engaged in making
their workplaces better.
Repost & follow
Ashley Couto
for more tips

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