4 Signs a Toxic Work Culture is Stifling Confidence

A toxic work culture can be the unraveling of even the most profitable business model. Without engaged and productive employees, the quality of products and services suffers. Eventually, the brand reputation plummets and it’s next to impossible to hire and retain quality talent.

Unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard to see the signs of a toxic work culture when you’re too close to it. There may be signs, but there is a way to explain away certain employee behaviors or dips in team performance based on other influences beyond your control as a leader, such as a crisis, recession, or personal circumstances.

It’s important to consider the signs of a toxic work culture critically, however, and look for ways to improve employees’ experience in the workplace no matter the cause. Here are a few signs your work culture needs some attention and ways to build a culture that breeds confidence:

Fear of failure

Performance reviews are essential to help your company track important metrics for business growth and development, but also to encourage the growth and development of employees. It’s not generally a comfortable experience for anyone to be critiqued, but constructive criticism is often welcomed when employees feel valued and empowered to improve.

If you notice employees seem to fear failure and there’s negative energy during performance reviews, there’s a good chance your feedback – and possibly that of peers – is discouraging your team.?

If you don’t already have a 360 review in place, it’s critical that you open the floor for suggestions from employees to make reviews a positive experience. You can ask for ways to show you value their efforts and reward achievements as well.

Lack of motivation

Motivation and enthusiasm on the job can ebb and flow seasonally or even daily. No one can be positive, peppy, and productive 100% of the time. But if you notice overall motivation across your team is down – especially if it stays down – it’s time to look at why.

It could be burnout. Or it could be something as simple as the work environment needs a lift. Most likely, you hired this team because they were motivated. It’s not impossible to revive that drive, but you need to approach it independently and collectively.

Invite employees to individual stay interviews where you can discuss what they each need to reconnect with their work and feel motivated and happy on the job. Then bring the team together to see if there are ways you can boost the mood and motivation across the team through culture-building activities or updates to the work environment.

Confusion and dysfunction

Communication is key among any team. If your employees are constantly confused about work processes and responsibilities, you have a major breakdown in communication. There could be things you could improve as a team leader to make expectations clear, but there’s a good chance your team’s communication and collaboration need a boost as well.

Team members may not want to – and shouldn’t – throw each other under the bus, so to speak, if there are specific key players in the communication breakdown. Focus on the solution rather than singling out certain employees who need to improve communication skills in this process.?

Are your tools for project management outdated? Are you relying on emails between employees when they could benefit from more immediate communication methods such as Slack or other instant messaging apps? Isolate the method of communication that’s failing your team, and provide the solution to share information more effectively.??

Disconnected culture

Are you sitting in the breakroom alone on taco Tuesday because employees didn’t show up for the team lunch on time? Worse yet, are you excluding yourself from group activities because you have a more pressing project to work on? Your team needs to connect on more than work. If your engagement in fun group activities is low, your culture is likely to blame in some way.?

It could be that the activities you pull from online don’t appeal to your workforce. Have employees contribute ideas and plan events in the office. Or it’s possible the structure of your office or expectations for employee performance don’t allow time for your team to nurture relationships, so group activities are awkward. Either way, if group fun time is a flop, your culture needs some care.?

Constant drama

Objectively worse than a culture that can’t connect is one that clashes. If you constantly see drama or hear gossip in the workplace, you have a toxic culture. It could be easy to sort out if it’s a specific employee who doesn’t fit well and creates conflict. But if the general atmosphere and relationships between employees are strained, you may need to dig and discover what’s creating the stress.

As a whole, your team could be burned out and blame each other for the burden of the workload. The reality could be your expectations are too high, goals are too lofty, or technology and resources are not sufficient. Start by surveying employees to identify the source of their individual stress in the workplace before singling out anyone.

High churn rate

This could be the most obvious and yet frequently overlooked red flag of toxic work culture. If you have a high rate of turnover, you’re probably pouring through your hiring metrics trying to determine what’s wrong with your talent sourcing or screening processes. You may blame low wages or bad benefits, etc.

All those factors could contribute but many employees will accept lower pay for great work culture. If there is a gap in your hiring process that’s accountable for turnover, it could be in assessing for culture fit. And if you’re consistently hiring bad-fitting candidates, it’s possible you don’t understand your work culture which is a big problem when you’re trying to improve it.

Ultimately, your work culture can make or break your business. But you should nurture a positive culture for more reasons than reaching your long-term business goals. Building people up and creating a work culture and environment that is rewarding to work in is a significant marker of success for humanity.??

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