Anatomy of a Toxic Culture

Contributed by Cindy Benning

In my last Behaviour Shift column, I discussed the implications of toxic team behaviours in organizations, hopefully giving you a reason to work on “shifting” your team behaviours. Now, let me ask you: Do you really understand what a toxic culture looks like? Do you know what behaviours you should look for and manage before they become embedded in your organization? Some may be apparent, while others may not be immediately noticeable.

In this article, I’ll share some of the more prevalent ones you might recognize in your organization.

Lack of Communication

This is perhaps the most prevalent unresolved organizational behavior issue and can manifest in various ways. Do any of these seem familiar to you?

• Team members avoid speaking up in meetings.
• Tasks and expectations are not clearly communicated or understood.
• Important messages and emails go unanswered or receive delayed responses.
• Team members make assumptions instead of clarifying information.
• Individuals withhold essential information.
• Updates on projects are inconsistent.
• Team members are over-reliant on emails and messaging without using face-to-face or voice communication.

Each of these communication challenges has different implications, but in general, teams become disconnected, and innovation, creativity, and productivity suffer.

Resistance to Change

Another challenging behaviour in teams is resistance to change. When this occurs, you may see persistent skepticism toward new initiatives, reduced participation in change-related activities, and frequent expressions of frustration or dissatisfaction. Additionally, it can lead to decreased collaboration, increased absenteeism, and a general reluctance to adopt new processes or technologies.

Unresolved Conflict and Tension

In teams with unresolved conflict and tension, you may see frequent disagreements, avoidance behaviour, or passive-aggressive behaviour. Teams may split into factions, with members aligning themselves with groups, exacerbating the conflict. This can result in lack of trust, low morale, reduced productivity, and perhaps even high turnover.

Lack of Accountability

When leaders struggle to enforce rules and standards, a lack of accountability can occur. Team members do not take responsibility for their actions or deliverables and deadlines are often missed.  It can lead to finger-pointing and a breakdown in trust, resulting in a lack of innovation and poor performance.

Micromanagement

If you’ve ever worked with a micromanager, you know it can negatively impact your ability to perform. In this culture, managers frequently check in on employees, closely monitoring every detail of their work and offering constant feedback. Employees are given little freedom to make decisions or take initiative, leading to a sense of disempowerment. Overbearing oversight can stifle creativity and initiative, leading to frustration and decreased performance.

Imbalance of Workload

There are several reasons that a leader may find himself/herself creating an imbalanced workload within his/her team. They may perceive that one person is more competent than the other or maybe just aren’t aware of the individual competencies in their team. They may even simply be showing favouritism. Very often, however, an imbalance of workload comes when there are urgent deadlines without proper planning and resource management.

This unequal distribution of work can be detrimental to teams.  Some members may suffer from burnout, while others may feel underutilized and lose motivation.

Now what?

As you can see, several behavioural challenges can contribute to a toxic work culture. Addressing these challenges requires leaders to adopt effective communication strategies, foster a culture of accountability and collaboration, and continuously engage and motivate their teams.

In the next Behaviour Shift column, I’ll begin to share some more specific ideas for managing these behaviours.