By: Carey Nieuwhof

Ever wonder if your organization’s culture is toxic?

Apparently, not enough leaders do.

According to a Gallup survey, only 15% of employees globally are engaged at work.

In America, 30% of employees are engaged, which at first sounds great.

Except that means that 70% of your workforce feels like their job is grinding the life of out of them. 70% of the people you’ve hired or who are part of your organization aren’t showing up with their best, productivity is low and your mission is suffering.

Underneath that is almost always some kind of unhealthy or toxic culture that demotivates your team.

As a result, every day, good people leave. People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses and cultures.

One of the most important roles you have as a leader is to create a healthy culture that attracts and keeps healthy team members.

One of the challenges in leadership is that the boss is often the last to know that their work culture is toxic.

Leaders consistently overestimate how healthy they are and how healthy their team is.

That’s why I developed a new resource for leaders called The 3 Step Guide to Developing Better Value Statements. It’s free. You can get instant access here.

So how would you know your organization’s culture is toxic?

Here are ten signs.

People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses and cultures.

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1. You talk ABOUT people, not to THEM

The golden rule of conflict is this: talk to the person you have an issue with, not about them.

In too many organizations, the opposite is true.

People talk about people rather than to them.

Companies are bad that this, but so our churches. Even in churches, conflict gets swept under the carpet, played out in a passive agressive way or spills out into social media.

The church should the BEST organization in the world in dealing with conflict. Often, we can be the worst.

The church should the BEST organization in the world in dealing with conflict. Often, we can be the worst.

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The next time you want to talk about someone (i.e. gossip), talk to them instead.

If you can’t or won’t, then it’s either not that big of an issue, so let it go. Or, you have a problem deeper than you realize. Get some help.

This also stops gossip dead in its tracks.

The next time you want to talk about someone (i.e. gossip), talk to them instead.

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2. You have to play politics to get anything done

One sure sign of a toxic culture is that you have to play politics to get anything done.

You know things have gotten political in your organization when:

Decisions rarely get made the way they’re supposed to be made.

Most decisions happen outside of meetings or any agreed-upon process.

You can’t get a yes without offering something in return.

You have to continually lobby to be heard.

If you’re always jockeying, lobbying and courting favor to get the right decision made, it’s a sign your organization is unhealthy.

In the local church in particular, having to play politics to win is a sure sign there’s sin.

When you do what you say you’re going to do the way you said you’re going to do it, you bring health to an organization.

In any organization, but in the local church in particular, having to play politics to win is a sure sign there’s sin.

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3. What gets said publicly is different from what’s happening privately

Another sign things are becoming toxic is when what gets said publicly is different than what happened privately.

When there’s spin on every issue and nothing can be said publicly without ‘agreeing’ on what gets said first, you’re in dangerous territory.

For sure, there are times where a situation is delicate and you will want to ‘agree’ on what gets said publicly to honour everyone involved, but in too many organizations few things that get done privately can be announced the same way publicly.

And to be sure…when you’re crafting any kind of a public statement, you want to pay attention to the words you use and perhaps even find agreement on them.

But the end product should never be the opposite or even different than what actually happened

I have good fortune of being part of several healthy organizations. I love it when people pull me aside and ask (in hushed tones), “So what’s the real story?” and I get to tell them “Actually, that is the real story.”

Living in that kind of culture really helps you sleep at night too.

You know your culture is toxic when there’s spin on every issue and nothing can be said publicly without ‘agreeing’ on what gets said first

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4. Conflict happens and is never addressed

Conflict is normal. You can’t have two people hang out for long without some differences arising.

Yet so many organizations are in perpetual fighting mode. Someone’s always at way with someone else.

Another reason churches fight regularly is because personal preferences have trumped organizational mission.

Left unattended, conflict can pit one selfish person or group against another.

A lot of bosses won’t address conflict or help resolve it in a healthy, direction and respectful way.

Unresolved or unhealthy conflict saps the strength out of most organizations.

If your organization is stagnant and in conflict, there should zero mystery as to why it isn’t growing.

If your organization is stagnant and in conflict, there should zero mystery as to why it isn’t growing.

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5. There’s an entrenched ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality

Every organization should be a ‘we,’ not an ‘us’ and ‘them.’

Whether the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality exists between factions in your organization or between you and the outside forces, it’s always fatal to health and growth.

The job of a leader is to raise vision high enough and urgently enough for all of us to become bigger than any of us.

The job of a leader is to raise vision high enough and urgently enough for all of us to become bigger than any of us.

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6. No one takes responsibility

So who’s taking responsibility for moving the mission forward?

In unhealthy cultures the answers sound like this:

No one.

Someone.

Anybody but me.

As long as things are someone else’s responsibility, things will never get better.

Unhealthy leaders assign blame. Healthy leaders assume responsibility.

Unhealthy leaders assign blame. Healthy leaders assume responsibility.

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7. You can’t tell the truth

One sure sign a culture has gone toxic is when you feel you can’t tell the truth at work, so you go home ‘dump’ all the truth out on your spouse or best friend instead.

There’s only one problem with that: someone who doesn’t work where you work can’t solve your workplace issues.

But your boss can.

One of the best things you can do as a boss is to encourage your team to speak freely, to tell you the truth…without fear of consequences.

You won’t love everything you hear.

But if you thank them for the feedback, never penalize them for telling you the truth, and take action, you’ll love hearing about the things that are bothering them far more than you’ll love hearing that one of your top team members is leaving.

And, once you know what the real issues are, you can start to solve them.

Someone who doesn’t work where you work can’t solve your workplace issues.

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8. Everyone seems fine with good enough

Toxicity isn’t just about the presence of bad things. It’s also about the absence of great things.

Far too often in workplaces, people settle for good enough when it’s really not, well, good at all.

Toxicity isn’t just about the presence of bad things. It’s also about the absence of great things.

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High capacity leaders are repulsed by mediocrity. The best team members actually crave high levels of challenge and want things to be better, if not great.

Too many organizations allow what is good to stand in the way of what could be great. The surest way to ensure a mediocre future is to resign yourself to a mediocre present.

Too many organizations allow what is good to stand in the way of what could be great. The surest way to ensure a mediocre future is to resign yourself to a mediocre present.

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9. There’s very little gratitude

Most people want to know they’re making a difference. Very few bosses tell them they are.

Recognition and gratitude is a simple way to reduce employee turnover and absenteeism and raise employee engagement.

If your team doesn’t know whether they’re making a difference, they’ll be less motivated to make a difference.

If your team doesn’t know whether they’re making a difference, they’ll be less motivated to make a difference.

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10. Only the boss’ opinion matters

It’s amazing that so many leaders hire a team and never really listen to them.

That’s also one more sign of an unhealthy culture.

It’s easy to think that once you’ve become a leader or boss, it gives you the right to call the shots and make the team and organization bend to your wishes. But as Patrick Lencioni argues, that’s the opposite of true leadership.

As Andy Stanley says, leaders who refuse to listen will eventually be surrounded by people with nothing to say.

Leaders who refuse to listen will eventually be surrounded by people with nothing to say. @andystanley

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Get Your FREE Guide to Creating Better Cultural Value Statements

Want to improve your team culture?

Better team culture gets fueled by better value statements.

But how to do create them can be so complicated.

How:

Do you know which values to choose?
Do you avoid creating value statements people roll their eyes at or think are so obvious they mean nothing?
Can you be sure the values are accurate but still stretch you?

I spent years reading books and studying how to create value statements until I had a breakthrough on how to create cultural value statements that were both accurate and aspirational, and that the entire team embraced.

I’ve broken that process down into three simple steps that can get you improving your organization’s culture and values today.

You can get free instant access to The 3 Step Guide to Developing Better Value Statements here.

What Signs of Toxic Culture Would You Add?

This could have been a 41 point blog post, but I stopped at 10.

What signs of a toxic culture have you seen or experienced?

Scroll down and leave a comment.

The post 10 Signs Your Organization’s Culture is Toxic appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 10 Signs Your Organization’s Culture is Toxic

The post 10 Signs Your Organization’s Culture is Toxic appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Leadership would be so much easier, the saying goes, if it wasn’t for people.

And topping of the list of difficult people to work with or lead is toxic people.

The hard part is, as much as we might wish it was otherwise, toxic people are everywhere.

Two questions spring up almost immediately when the subject of toxic people arises.

How do you spot them?

How do you deal with them?

It’s critical in leadership to think through the people aspect of what you do. I know it’s easy for visionaries to think success lies in ideas, or operations people to believe that progress lies in execution, but the key to getting anything done is always people.

What you accomplish in leadership is often most powerfully shaped by you allow into leadership. If you let toxic people in, you pay a staggering price.

My guess is not everyone will like the direction or language in this post. I get that.

However, every day gifted leaders quit toxic cultures, toxic bosses and leave toxic workplaces. Every single day, amazing businesses, churches, causes, and not-for-profits miss their mission because someone allowed toxic leaders sabotage the work.

And every day, good people go home discouraged and defeated because nobody had the guts to deal with the toxic people at work. If you don’t think our culture suffers from toxicity (and even evil), just read the headlines or scroll your feeds for a few minutes. Yep. We do.

So with all that in mind, here are 7 insights that have helped me immensely in figuring out how to spot and then how to deal with toxic people.

What you accomplish in leadership is often most powerfully shaped by who you allow into leadership. If you let toxic people in, you pay a staggering price.Click To Tweet

1. Understand that basically there are three kinds of people

It probably seems too simple to divide the world into three kinds of people, but try as he might to avoid it, clinical psychologist and best-selling author Henry Cloud helpfully points out in his book, Necessary Endings that there are essentially three kinds of people in life and leadership.

Wise People

Foolish People

Evil People

Essentially the difference between wise people and foolish people comes down to how they deal with truth.

Wise people encounter truth and change as a result. For example, after getting a speeding ticket, wise people learn and slow down. After being told their words hurt someone, a wise person will try to understand why, apologize and work hard not to do it again. They’re open, not defensive, they learn and grow and tend not to make the mistakes over and over again.

Foolish people encounter truth and don’t change. Instead, they try to adjust the truth so they don’t have to adjust to it. Confronted with a problem, a foolish person will deny, blame, minimize, generate excuses and do anything in his or her power to avoid having to deal with the reality.

They don’t learn and rarely grow. As Cloud’s frequent collaborator John Townsend puts it, foolish people have a flat learning curve. As a result, they tend to wreak a lot of havoc and cause damage in their own lives and the lives of others.

Foolish behaviour means some broke people will always be broke, some chronic procrastinators will always be late and some people keep running into the same problems again and again. They may mean well, but they’re lack of learning means they keep making things hard for themselves and others.

Finally, as hard as it is to admit, some people really are evil. They intend to harm you. They want to take you down. And as hard as it is to believe, they don’t have your best interests at heart and want to see you fail. I found it hard to accept this early on in leadership, but I’ve seen it often enough times to no longer dismiss it.

There are basically three kinds of people in the world: wise people, foolish people and evil people. The sooner you accept that, the easier it becomes to make progress.

So what do you do with this stark (and unpleaseant) truth?

There are basically three kinds of people in the world: wise people, foolish people and evil people. The sooner you accept that, the easier it becomes to make progress. Click To Tweet

2. Realize That Some People Won’t Change

At some point in our lives, all of us behave wisely, foolishly and with evil intent.

I know I’ve spoken words that I intended to hurt, and when I do that, I’m acting in an evil or toxic way. And sometimes I make the same mistake over and over again, and when I do, that’s foolish.

People who are generally wise sometimes do foolish things and mean things.

The good news with Cloud’s categories is that people do change with time and grow.

Evil people may have a change of heart and start helping not hurting, and when they do that, they can even become wise. Foolish people sometimes realize how much damage they do and decide to learn and grow.

But overall, most of us would have to admit that human beings fall into one of those three categories at any moment in life: you’re either generally wise, foolish or evil in your approach to life.

And that means, as much as you want to believe otherwise, and despite your coaching and encouragement, fools often remain fools and evil people remain committed to harming others.

Yep. I know. It sounds so judgmental and terrible and I resisted it for a long time too— resisted it to my peril and to the peril of the people I lead, may I add.

Henry Cloud admits it’s a tough pill to swallow:

“If you are a responsible and loving person, then you might assume that other people are like you—responsible and loving. They do the right thing, taking responsibility for themselves, for their mistakes, for their work. And they care about other people and how their actions affect those people…So doesn’t it make sense that everyone else would be like you and really care? 

Sure, if you lived on Mars. But this is planet Earth. And if you are going to succeed in life and business, you need to succeed on this planet, not Mars.” (Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings)

So doesn’t it make sense that everyone else would be like you and really care? Sure, if you lived on Mars. But this is planet Earth. Click To Tweet

Just because someone can change doesn’t mean someone will change. That’s where your leadership and discernment come in.

So what’s next? You learn how to spot toxic people.

Just because someone can change doesn’t mean someone will change. Click To Tweet

3. Learn How to Spot Toxic People

I’m increasingly convinced one of a leader’s key tasks is to learn how to spot toxic people and take appropriate action.

In my view, both foolish people and evil people are toxic to your culture and mission.

Fools pollute things not because they’re trying to ruin things, but because they (for whatever reason) do tend to do it again and again.

Foolish leaders keep repeating their mistakes because they’re either convinced they’re right or oblivious to the fact that they’re wrong, regardless of the fact that others have pointed that out.

And evil people, well they meant to lie, harm and malign.

Foolish leaders are convinced they’re right or oblivious to the fact that they’re wrong, regardless of the fact that others have pointed that out. Click To Tweet

So how do you recognize the signs?

A few years ago I wrote a post outlining 6 early warning signs you’re dealing with a toxic person. You can read that post here.

I’m going to add a few more to the list I didn’t cover in that post. See if any resonate.

Behavior that’s ultimately toxic to your organization’s culture and mission include:

Making the same mistakes over and over again, despite frequent attempts to help them and ample time to correct the problem and change.
Self-absorption.
Lying.
Manipulation.
An unwillingness to listen to feedback.
Assigning blame.
Refusing to accept responsibility.
They’re never wrong.
Playing the victim.
Frequent anger.
Hidden agendas.
A critical spirit about anything they didn’t think of.
Gossip or malicious talk about other people.
Ignoring boundaries they or other people have set.
Passive-aggressive behavior (what happens to your face and what happens behind your back are very different).
Pursuing their own mission that’s different from the organization’s mission.

The list could be much longer, but this gives you a sampling of toxic behaviors that take people and missions under.

Naturally, we all exhibit some of the behavior listed above some of the time (we’re all human), but the wise realize what they did, correct course, change and grow.

If you allow toxic people into leadership, you can be sure a toxic culture will follow.

If you allow toxic people into leadership, you can be sure a toxic culture will follow.Click To Tweet

4. Take a Good Look in the Mirror

The first place to look for wisdom, foolishness, and evil in leadership is the least comfortable place to look: in the mirror.

I’ve been in senior leadership for over two decades. As much as I don’t want to admit it, it’s still true: my organization will only ever be as healthy as I am.

Ditto for you. Fight it all you want, but your organization will only ever be as healthy as you are as the leader.

Even if you’re not the senior leader, that’s true of the team you lead, the department you run, or the crew you manage. The health of the leader tends to determine the health of the team.

Your organization will only ever be as healthy as you are as the leader. The health of the leader tends to determine the health of the team.Click To Tweet

It’s hard to have a healthy organization if you don’t have a healthy leader.

So when you see foolish behavior or bad intentions inside you,  confess them and address them. Invite other people to give you feedback. Learn and grow.

Healthy leaders produce healthy teams. Unhealthy leaders don’t.

Healthy leaders produce healthy teams. Unhealthy leaders don’t.Click To Tweet

5. Limit Fools

So what do you do with foolish people?

Well, here’s the problem with foolish people at work. You only have so many hours in the day and so much energy. The problem with pouring your time and energy into foolish leaders is that after your coaching and help, they’re no better and you’re drained.

The problem with pouring your limited time and energy into foolish leaders is that after your coaching and help, they’re no better and you’re drained. Click To Tweet

What’s worse, is their repeated mistakes impact everybody around them and threaten the mistakes.

Does that mean you’ll have no fools at work? No. First, there’s an abundance of foolish people and behaviors. And second, I’m not sure that completely eliminating all fools from your life is a good idea. We should all have at least a small place in our life and leadership for building into others, even if sometimes that takes a little more grace and lot more time than we’d like.

What that does mean, though,  is that because your time is limited, you should limit your time with fools and be really careful who you hire and recruit.

The key to fools is to limit the number and limit their impact. Otherwise, the cost is simply too great. Whether they mean to do damage or not, foolish people can do a lot of damage.

It’s hard to build the future on people who have trouble navigating the present.

It’s hard to build the future on people who have trouble navigating the present.Click To Tweet

6. Eliminate Evil People

When it comes to evil people…people who want to wound, maim and undo you or your organization, there’s only once option: block those attempts. Get away and stay away.

Looking back on my leadership, I realize there were seasons where—for whatever reason—people wanted to take me out or take down our mission. It hasn’t happened often, but it has happened. Clear boundaries, firm decisions and consistent ‘no’s’ that block any attempts they make to undermine the mission are critical.

When it gets that serious, I always involve other leaders I trust to make sure that we really dealing with someone who intends to harm and that the boundaries we put in place make sense. On rare occasions, those boundaries have included the police.

And while my faith tells me to love my enemies, there are some instances where a person is best prayed for from a distance, not from up close.

Imagine reaching 100—or 1000 or 10,000 new people—in the next year if your mission continues. That’s what people who want to harm you threaten.

Taking the mission seriously means that, as a leader, you also have to take evil seriously. It’s actually that important.

Taking the mission seriously means that, as a leader, you also have to take evil seriously. Click To Tweet

7. Stack the Top of Your Organization With Wise People

You know how to get the healthiest team and how to best move the mission forward? Stack the top of your organization with as many wise people as you can find.

The top is critical (by that I mean your senior leaders, board and other key players) with as many wise leaders as possible.Look for honest, humble, growing leaders who love to learn and are open for feedback.

Teachability is a much greater ingredient in wisdom than IQ is. A humble, hungry, teachable leader will beat a smart leader any day. (Surprisingly, there are a lot of intelligent fools.)

Obviously, there’s a lot of work to do based on the points already covered, and a regular vigilance that you need to maintain in keeping threats at bay, but the secret is once you do that and stack the top of your organization with wise people, a natural buffer gets created.

Eventually, a multiplicity of wise leaders will help you create a healthy culture.

Here’s the truth about culture.

Create a deeply healthy culture and, over time, toxic people will leave. 

Why? Because a healthy culture spits out toxic people. Just like healthy bodies ward off disease, healthy cultures ward off toxic people.

Here’s the surprise. No one gets kicked out. When your culture is ultra-healthy, toxic people leave when they can’t get traction or validation.

Your long term investment and vigilance finally pay off in ways you never expected.

A healthy culture spits out toxic people. Here’s the surprise. No one gets kicked out. Toxic people just leave when they can’t get traction or validation. Click To Tweet

Ready to Get Healthier?

Exhausted thinking about how much work is ahead of you?

Good news. A small investment will pay huge dividends in getting you healthier and freeing up time to make your organization healthier.

I’d love to help you do that.

I’ve helped over 3000 leaders free up hundreds of hours each year and often 3 hours a day to do what they feel they never have time for and get healthier in the process. .

My High Impact Leader course, is my online, on-demand course designed to help you get time, energy and priorities working in your favour.

It’s perfect for leaders who feel like they never have enough time in the day to get the really important things done.

Many leaders who have taken it are recovering 3 productive hours a day.  That’s about 1000 hours of found time each year. That’s a lot of time for what matters most.

Here are what some alumni are saying about The High Impact Leader Course”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for providing the course again. It has absolutely made an impact in my life and family already that I can’t even describe.” – Joel Rowland, Clayton County, North Carolina

“Just wow.  Thank you, thank you.” Dave Campbell,  Sioux Falls South Dakota

“A game-changer.” Pam Perkins,  Colorado Springs, Colorado

Curious? Want to beat overwhelm and have the time to reflect, rest and reinvent yourself?

Click here to learn more or get instant access.

What Are You Learning? 

I realize this approach probably seems tough, but tough beats the malaise and toxins that run through so many organizations these days.

If you want a little more nuance, I taught a four part series on eliminating toxic things and people from your life called Add, Follow, Block. You can watch it/listen here.

So…what are you learning about toxic people and a healthy workplace?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post How to Deal With Toxic People (7 Pro Tips) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: How to Deal With Toxic People (7 Pro Tips)

The post How to Deal With Toxic People (7 Pro Tips) appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By Carey Nieuwhof: Guess what’s impacting your leadership more thank you think?

Culture.

Specifically, the culture you’re creating as a leader.

Often I hear leaders complain about the toxic people they have in their organization (staff, customers, volunteers, attenders). To be sure, that happens.

But if you always have toxic people in your culture, or you have a lot of toxic people in your culture, the problem may not be them nearly as much as the problem is your culture.

Here’s the truth about culture.

Create a healthy culture and toxic people will leave.

Let your culture go flat or get toxic, and the healthy people will depart.

Why? Because:

A healthy culture spits out toxic people.

A toxic culture spits out healthy people.

Here’s the surprise. No one gets kicked out. They just leave when they can’t get traction or validation.

A healthy culture spits out toxic people. And a toxic culture spits out healthy people. Here’s the surprise. No one gets kicked out. They just leave when they can’t get traction or validation. Click To Tweet

This truth runs deeper than you realize.

I agree that people who leave organizations quit their boss more than they quit their job. But people also quit cultures. Healthy people quit unhealthy cultures. And unhealthy people quit healthy cultures.

As a result, the staff, volunteer and overall culture you create as a leader has an awful lot to do with the long term success or failure of your organization.

Pick whatever cultural values you want, but fundamentally, your culture will either be healthy or slide into unhealthy or toxic.

You either decide to create an organization in which healthy people thrive, or you experience the inevitable slide into malaise, unhealthiness or toxicity. That’s just how human nature works.

You may be wondering what the difference is between an unhealthy person and a toxic person. While there are nuances, here’s the bottom line: unhealthy people want to get better. Toxic people don’t.

Your organization should always have room for unhealthy people on the road to recovery. Toxic people who resist all efforts to help are a whole other thing. And as Henry Cloud argues, you really don’t need to keep them around, unless you want them to destroy everything.

So what do you do about all this?

If you want to create a stellar organization culture that attracts and keeps healthy people, here are four keys:

People who leave organizations quit their boss more than they quit their job. But it’s deeper than that. People also quit cultures.Click To Tweet

1. Focus on Your Personal Health

I have been in senior leadership for over two decades. As much as I don’t want to admit it, it’s still true: my organization will only ever be as healthy as I am.

Ditto for you. Fight it all you want, but your organization will only ever be as healthy as you are as the leader.

Even if you’re not the senior leader, that’s true of the team you lead, the department you run, or the crew you manage. The health of the leader tends to be the health of the team.

Your organization will only ever be as healthy as you are as the leader. Click To Tweet

I think of the health of a leader in five categories:

Spiritual
Emotional
Relational
Physical
Financial

While health in each category is nuanced (I write about the personal health of a leader in detail in my best selling book, Didn’t See It Coming), one thing is true: health in each category means margin in each category.

A healthy leader has a fairly full spiritual, emotional, relational and physical tank. They’re not exhausted all the time, or constantly irritable, or so consumed with giving to others than they’re almost bankrupt themselves.

You may wonder what being financially healthy looks like. It’s simple: living within your means. There are leaders who make $30,000 a year who have a bit of money in the bank and leaders who make $130,000 who are always strapped and out of money. When your personal financial situation causes you stress, that stress just leaks out all over the place.

Healthy leaders tend to lead healthy organizations because they end with reserves to help others get healthy, and they also have a lower tolerance for toxicity.

Finally, healthy people are attracted to healthy leaders.

Healthy people are attracted to healthy leaders. Toxic people aren’t.Click To Tweet

2. Invest in People, Not Just Results

I’m naturally a results people.

But I’ve also come to realize this: that results-driven leaders focus over what they can get from their team. Healthy leaders obsess over what they can do for their team.

Strangely, if all you think about is what you can get from your team, you always end up with diminishing returns. People feel used, and they eventually lose heart, start going through the motions or leave.

But if you focus on what you can do for your team, people lean in and give you way more than you imagined.

Results-driven leaders focus over what they can get from their team. Healthy leaders obsess over what they can do for their team. Click To Tweet

The longer I lead, the more I realize that if you have competent people,  the best thing you can do is care about the team as people.

I’ve found a few things really help:

Ask how they’re doing, not just what they’re doing. People want to know that you care.
Invest in their growth and development.

Do off-sites together.
Take them to conferences, events and seminars.
Invest in courses, books and resources that grow them and their skill set.
Get them coaching and counselling as needed.

Give them what they need to do the job. Everything from slow computers, to bad wifi, to a crappy work environment all demotivate people and create unnecessary barriers. Cheap is always more expensive in the long run anyway.

If you have little budget, start with free. There are literally hundreds of thousands of free articles, e-books, podcasts and courses you can do together to grow as leaders. I have a Leadership Podcast that’s free and comes with free show notes and transcripts, and I have free courses as well (select what your biggest leadership challenges is here and you’re in!)

Bottom line? Create the kind of environment where the people working for you become better people, not just employees. Grow them, not just their skills.

When your team grows personally, your progress grows exponentially.

When your team grows personally, your progress grows exponentially. Click To Tweet

3. Get Rid of Us and Them Thinking

In any health organization or church, there’s no us and them, there’s only we.

This can granular fast.

If you have multiple locations, it’s easy to talk about ‘those guys.” There’s no those guys. They’re you.

Ditto with departments, divisions, management, leadership team…whatever. As soon as someone begins to say that ‘they’ won’t let us or ‘they’ want something different, the end is near.

In a really unhealthy culture, organizations blame their customers or members.

They’re so demanding.

They just don’t get it.

How can they be so dumb?

Seriously—the very people you’re trying to serve/reach/encourage/engage are the brunt of your frustrations?

Trust me, as a leader I would love to live in a world where I could blame people for everything. And on the inside, I still want to.

But I also know that ultimately, I’m responsible for everything I don’t like in our organization because I’m the leader.

That doesn’t mean you ignore real problems or put lip gloss over all the problems you encounter as a leader.

I love what Craig Groeschel frames it. When there’s a genuine problem that needs to be fixed, be that with teams, divisions, locations, departments on the people you serve, instead of blaming them, say:

We haven’t led them to be less demanding.

I haven’t been clear enough for them to understand the situation, so let me work harder.

I have to figure out what the real problem is and solve it.

If you eliminate ‘they’ and ‘them’ from your leadership vocabulary and replace it with “I’ or “we” great things start to happen.

First, you take responsibility. If you’re the leader, you’re responsible.

Second, your heart shifts. You no longer see others as a the problem; you realize your job is to serve and help them.

Third, you’ll likely solve the problem.

Blame is the opposite of responsibility. When you stop blaming and making excuses, you start making progress, because you can make excuses or you can make progress, but you can’t make both.

Blame is the opposite of responsibility. When you stop blaming and making excuses, you start making progress, because you can make excuses or you can make progress, but you can’t make both. Click To Tweet

4. Create Firm Boundaries

Once you have a healthy/ier organization, the key is to stay healthy at the top—at the senior leadership levels.

If you find yourself getting unhealthy, call it out and seek help. If someone else on the team gets into a bad season, come along side them and see if they want to get well. If they do, embrace them and stand behind them. If they don’t, don’t let their negativity infect your organization.

And when you spot a toxic person, don’t let them step in. Don’t hire them. Don’t let them serve or volunteers. If they’re really toxic, you may not want them even in a group.

Before you push back, remember, the distinction between an unhealthy person and a toxic person is the desire to get well. If someone has no desire to get well, you won’t be able to help them.

Don’t let the ill-health of one person destroy the health of your team.

With a firm boundary in place, usually toxic people give up and go elsewhere. And in a healthy culture in the rare occasion you need to ask them to, that one awkward conversation and firm boundary is completely worth it—for them and for you.

Don’t let the ill-health of one person destroy the health of your team.Click To Tweet

How A Healthy Culture Perpetuates Itself

While there’s a lot more to creating a healthy culture, I find that even focusing on these three produces huge gains.

First, when the culture is healthy, unhealthy people who want to get well find that they do.

Because so many workplaces have an unhealthy culture—and so many families do as well—people first are startled by health, but eventually a healthy organization becomes a magnet for people who get healthy or want to get well.

And for toxic people? Well, because they can’t seem to get a toe-hold, and the culture won’t change to meet their dysfunction, they move on looking for less healthy places to belong to.

This virtuous cycle will keep going as long as you stay healthy as a leader and surround yourself with a healthy, growing team.

If You’re Ready to Get Healthy…

So how do you get to a place where you even have the time to get healthy?

I’d love to show you how to carve out time, create space and eliminate distractions in your life so you can focus on what matters most and get healthy.

If you’re trying to find the time for what matters most in life, my High Impact Leader course, is my online, on-demand course designed to help you get time, energy and priorities working in your favour.

Many leaders who have taken it are recovering 3 productive hours a day.  That’s about 1000 hours of found time each year. That’s a lot of time for what matters most.

Here are what some alumni are saying about The High Impact Leader Course”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for providing the course again. It has absolutely made an impact in my life and family already that I can’t even describe.” – First Priority, Clayton County, North Carolina

“Carey’s course was the perfect way for our team to prepare for the new year. Our team, both collectively and individually, took a fresh look at maximizing our time and leadership gifts for the year ahead. I highly recommend this leadership development resource for you and your team.” Jeff Henderson, Gwinnett Church, Atlanta Georgia

“A lot of books and programs make big promises and cannot deliver but this is not one of them. I have read so many books and watched videos on productivity but the way you approach it and teach is helpful and has changed my work week in ministry in amazing ways.” Chris Sloan, Tanglewood Church, Kingston, North Carolina

“Just wow.  Thank you, thank you.” Dave Campbell, Invitation Church, Sioux Falls South Dakota

“A game changer.” Pam Perkins, Red Rock Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Curious? Want to beat overwhelm and have the time to reinvent yourself?

Click here to learn more or get instant access.

What Do You Think?

I realize this isn’t an easy post, but what do you think? What do you see as the key to a healthy culture?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

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