Gasp!: Why Identifying if you have an Unenviable Workplace Culture is a Must-Do!

As we continue down the culture path (check out my first post on culture and your bottom line), I wanted to open this week’s post with a quote from David Cummings, co-founder of Pardot: “Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur.”

Of course, you can replace the word entrepreneur with company, organization, non-profit, etc. Today, I’m going to discuss how you can identify if your workplace has a toxic culture (or a lack of culture) and how it affects your business.  

First, let’s check out a recent article from Fast Company - 12 Signs Your Company has an Enviable Workplace Culture. I’m going to turn this list upside down and create the opposite - 12 Signs Your Company has an Unenviable Workplace Culture…here goes:

1. Co-workers and employees avoid joining your department like the plague and in fact, you’d recommend that they don’t.
2. Turnover is high…enough said.
3. Leaders don’t want others to lead and block opportunities for others to take charge.
4. The Gossip Girl culture is real and you’re surprised you don’t receive emails signed XOXO, Gossip Girl.
5. There is no such thing as lateral leadership.
6. The company mission is not taken seriously and is not a driving factor in projects/tasks.
7. Coworkers treat each other like frenemies.
8. Employees feel like they are just a number, easily replaceable and not a benefit to the company.
9. You constantly have to remind people to turn their frown upside down.
10. Fear is always lurking…fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of talking to the boss, fear of making a mistake.
11. Internal communications is an absolute hot mess.
12. Ch-ch-changes are non-existent and unwelcome.

So here is the good news and the bad news. First, the bad news: no company culture is perfect, but if you answered YES to any of the above, you have some room for improvement and or tweaks to make within your culture.

Now for the good news: As Mr. Cummings said, you are completely in control of your company culture. You CAN and you SHOULD start making changes ASAP if you feel like you have an unenviable workplace culture.

I also think it’s important to keep this statement in mind: Employees are all striving for the same end result – a successful company that helps them lead the lives they want – so empowering them to support one another along the way inspires even better work. This is from a post blog I wrote on the four pillars of Conscious Capitalism: Culture on the Brain. Keep this in mind and use it to shape your culture as it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that bad culture equals, lower employee engagement, more mistakes, low morale, lack of innovation and not to mention lost profits.

I’ll leave you with this: remember company culture starts at the top, a lesson some companies have learned the hard way in recent months. This article from the LA Times outlines the culture pitfalls really well and sums it up to a lack of empowerment among other things. So don’t let your organization become a case study on bad culture and take control over your CULTURE…who knows you might just end up having fun with it.

Make sure to come back for my final post in this series where we’ll take a look at how to strengthen your culture and how you can make sure everyone is reaping the benefits.

ABOUT ME: I’m a Certified Professional in Training Management (ask me about that if you are interested) I’m a trusted partner to corporate learning leaders and help connect the dots when it comes to connecting ideas, practices and technologies to meet both learning and business outcomes. You can contact me at here on LinkedIn.