To create a strong culture for your organization, it’s not enough to implement certain behaviors and attitudes. You also have to be careful to avoid these 5 business culture killers.

Negativity

Negative attitudes are poison to any organizational team. Negativity destroys confidence, morale, motivation, and communication – all important aspects of your organization.

The best way to combat negativity is with positivity. Foster a positive attitude among your organization. Positivity is reflected in these characteristics:

• Optimistic, but still realistic
• Open to risk-taking
• Not afraid to fail as long as something can be learned from it

A positive attitude frames issues in terms of the benefits of success rather than the potential for failure.

Gossip

Gossip creates divisions between team members. It creates insiders and outsiders. It’s also a distraction that can ruin relationships.

The root cause of gossip is often lack of communication. A small gripe or problem grows behind someone’s back because their team members can’t say it directly or in a positive way. A good way to prevent gossip is to make sure that you have open communication, and deal with gossip quickly to nip it in the bud when it arises.

The Blame Game

When team members are blaming each other, this means that there is a lack of personal responsibility. Instead of taking responsibility for their own actions or behaviors, your team members are blaming others. This then leads to conflict.

You can teach accountability through one-on-one coaching. Work with each team member to identify obstacles, create strategies, and monitor progress. They’ll learn to be more accountable to you and eventually themselves.

Time-Wasting Meetings

If you’re holding meetings that aren’t absolutely vital and interesting to each member of your team, this could lead to disengagement. A meeting will be seen as a time-waster that interrupts your team members from getting their important work done.

Streamline your meetings. Create a schedule for each and make sure that each item truly needs to be discussed with everyone. If it’s an issue that only relates to a few members, have a smaller meeting with them or meet them one on one.

Another way to make meetings more efficient is to “flip” them. Flipping a meeting means presenting the meeting content before you actually meet. Then, the meeting is just time for discussion, activities, feedback, or questions.

Lack of Praise and Appreciation

Always make sure that you give credit and praise where it’s due, and recognize your team members for their achievements. Make sure all team members understand that they’re appreciated and completely essential to your organization.

The Essence

Coach your employees both in groups and as individuals. Train them to innovate and be leaders. When you add coaching to your own skill set, you can build a team that is resistant to these 5 business culture killers.

Your Next Step

Contact us to learn more how we can help you becoming a successful leader who promotes innovation, who builds and leads a high performing team. Or just enroll in one of our courses from the Leadership Program