Want to change a Toxic environment? Start with removing the “T”!

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“Oxic” is a process of introducing oxygen into the room while “toxic” can be poisonous, harmful and unpleasant in a pervasive or insidious way. Do you work in an environment that may be harmful to your health? The environment may need more oxygen to get rid of the toxicity.

People who are bullies, complainers, gossipers or someone who will throw people under the bus can create a toxic workplace. These types of workers can really take down a team and make it harder for the team to be successful. Oftentimes people don’t realize that they are toxic. Egos can get in the way and we often don’t see ourselves having bad behavior. I have seen a lot of this type of behavior in teams over the years and it can be really hard for a manager to combat it.

Here are some ways managers and their teams can turn around the toxic behavior bringing in more oxygen to create a winning culture -

1. Find the root cause - Complainers or gossipers on a team can get out of control because people who complain like to involve others to agree with what they are saying. Complaining is very contagious and can impact the team’s morale. Managers have to find the ringleaders of this behavior. This can sometimes be just 1 or 2 people.

2. Hold people accountable - Once you find the root cause, ask the ringleaders what they would do to find solutions to the situations. Ask them to take the lead to solution the issue. When you do this, the person is now accountable to help make the situation better. Empowering them to take the lead on a project can spark passion in that person to really want to find a solution to the issue.

3. Ask for continuous feedback - Allowing people to give feedback helps keep the complaints down. You are never going to be able to stop all complaining, but giving people the opportunities to voice opinions or vent helps to reduce the noise. Always ask the complainer to come with a solution to their situation. This makes it a more constructive conversation and it begins to change the culture to become solution oriented.

4. Build relationships - I have noticed that some team members are judgmental of others for no reason. They may make a biased judgement against another person without really getting to know them. Having smaller group meetings just to get to know others and build relationships helps. When you learn that the coworker you were gossiping about is in the midst of a personal issue, you begin to have more empathy for them.

5. Take action - Little changes sometimes can make such a difference for teams. It may be a simple change from acknowledging wins or reducing the number of meetings for the team. When the team sees that you are making changes, they will start to feel that their voice matters.

There is no real science to creating a winning team, but breaking down the barriers and weeding out the toxic behavior is so critical to getting there. It’s definitely not an easy task. It really does take the entire team to be held accountable to make a change. The team members have to want to create the right culture. It can’t be done by the manager alone.

Changing a culture is done one step at time. Ask your team members to think about solutions. Remind the team, for every problem, there is always a solution.

Here’s to your success and your teams success!

Best,

Rene