I was talking to the owner of my local coffee shop, and he told me he had just wrapped up a team meeting with his staff to talk about the importance of their energy and enthusiasm and its impact on the ambience they create for their customers. He stressed that having a bright friendly energetic and positive team culture will help attract customers, and create a positive customer lived experience when at the café. This was so refreshing to hear how a young business owner places so much importance on team culture and the impact it has on the success of the business.
Leadership defines the culture of any organisation.
Culture is simply defined as how things are done around here! It is about mindsets, behaviours. team values, and leadership. What a leader role models, enforces, and endorses is what shapes any team culture. Likewise, what a leader ignores and accepts is as equally important. A positive team climate requires a leader’s intent. It does not happen by chance!
What are the key reasons people leave a team?
They flee poor management and a toxic team culture. They simply want to leave and not be part of a toxic leader or team culture.
They want to take the next career step, or try something new. They wish to pursue new horizons and opportunities.
They want to regain alignment. Their belief system does not align with the leadership and purpose of the organisation.
They want to regain control, stop being micromanaged and regain control of their time, priorities and personal commitments.
None of the above is new, or surprising. However, the number one reason (over 60 per cent) of why people leave organisations is due to a poor manager and thus a toxic team climate.
Here are seven red flags of a poor team climate.
#1: Lack of open communication
People do not feel emotionally safe to provide feedback or suggestions for improvements due to a fear of how a leader may react. Also, how a leader communicates to their team, what they reward and recognise, and what they communicate in good and poor times will speak volumes for the authenticity and credibility of a leader.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place
– George Bernard Shaw
#2: No sense of progress
The team have no sense of what it is they are trying to achieve, how they are performing (except when there are problems), or when they have achieved any performance milestones. Without a sense of progress, teams just exist. The culture is one of “surviving one week to the next”. Achievement is what motivates people.
A little progress each day adds up to big results.
Progress fuels hope and confidence.
Confidence is what sets high-performing and mediocre teams apart.
#3: No sense of belonging
Team members feel they are just a number. They cannot see how what they do contributes to the overall team success. Their efforts and contributions to the team are never recognised by their leader, thus creating feelings of disconnection from the team, and extinguishing any commitment or motivation to do better or more.
A lack of appreciation is what gets in the way of people being willing and generous with their time and energy.
#4: A blame culture
Leaders who seek to find fault, blame others, or deflect accountability for mistakes onto others will always preside over a toxic team culture. We see this all too often when the leader accepts responsibility for when things go right, but blame others when things go wrong.
Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving the team credit for everything that goes well
– Dwight D Eisenhower
#5: No autonomy for decision-making
People like to be empowered to make decisions. Where people work in a command-and-control team environment, where all meaningful decisions must be escalated to a higher authority – this will always fuel a compliance culture where people just do as they are told.
Most people associate command and control leadership with the military
– Meg Wheatley
#6: Team cliques and exclusions:
Where there is no team unity and inclusion for all, team cliques will always occur. This leads to siloed thinking, poor team dynamics, and a team climate of them versus us, or worse, a sense of isolation and loneliness.
Great things are never achieved by one person.
They are done by a team of people working together for a common purpose
– Steve Jobs
#7: No team cadence
This is how any team teams! This is a leader’s responsibility. Team cadence includes the formal and informal methods and mechanisms for a team to socialise, solve problems, celebrate successes, set goals, adapt to new circumstances, review performance, and make plans. No team cadence guarantees poor team dynamics.
The only thing of real importance leaders do is to create and manage team culture through team habits, routines, mindsets, and behaviours
– Edgar Schein
If these seven red flags are allowed to prevail by a leader, it will lead to a toxic team culture, high team turnover, a survival mindset in team members, low levels of emotional safety, poor team engagement, and low team energy, which all lead to poor team performance.
Leadership Lesson
How a leader chooses to treat their team members, and how well they recognise, thank, and demonstrate appreciation for team success, is the ultimate measure of a leader’s credibility.
Facta Non-Verba – Deeds Not Words
