Repairing Bad Company Culture from the Top

Changing Workplace Culture Starts with Leadership

With each new corporate failure or scandal, we hear the same questions repeated: How did this happen? How could nobody else have known about it?  Knowing what they knew, why was nothing done?

Often, it’s a culture of arrogance that has existed for a long time. I’m sure the unethical company culture didn’t start that way. Yet, if even one act occurs outside the lines of ethics and decency, it tends to snowball.

Before long, this behavior where people are knowingly in the wrong becomes the norm. One person propagating bad company culture spreads to the point where it feels like the whole company is behaving badly. And what if you don’t behave the same way? What if you’re not complicit and accepting of such behavior? You’re out.

A company doesn’t need to operate on a global scale to breed a culture of arrogance. It simply needs to descend into a cycle of questionable behavior, usually based on greed, self-interest, or fear, that is tolerated to the point of leadership saying, “We can do no wrong.”

Rehabilitating Bad Company Culture

By the time it’s bad enough to warrant attention or action, it’s not a rehab project anymore — it’s a major operation in which you need to ‘cut out the cancer’ by removing the staff connected to the culture of arrogance. This is an important point: the ‘cogs’ who are aware of the bad behavior and are enablers of it are as guilty as those who exhibit the bad behavior. Without them, the bad behavior can’t exist.

Sound extreme? Think again. When you have a tainted brand, you can’t reform that brand with only a few tweaks here and there. You need to do something major and show change to earn people’s respect and regain their trust.

During this process,  you will also to need to heal yourself internally and likewise heal any remaining client relationships.

Identify People Whose Values You Want to Embrace

How can you showcase good behavior more? When people associated with the firm display ethical behavior, leaders should publicize and reward it to show what the company values. Others can then begin to model that positive behavior.

In the past, I’ve also spoken about ‘disruptors’ — those special, hidden talents who tend to go against the grain. They’re not trying to be difficult but cause disruption with a mission. Could your relationship with this group be cultivated? Are some of them willing to follow you?

Place Emerging Leaders in Influential Roles

One of the key attributes of a leader is serving as a role model for the culture and values of the organization. In order to ensure a sustained positive company culture, you need to groom emerging leaders who know how to make a visible difference in the culture. Allowing this group to provide input that makes an impact at all levels, is a great way to influence change. That input doesn’t have to be implemented every time of course, but the C-suite must demonstrate that it was heard.

Be Vulnerable

There are three significant questions every leader should ask in their quest to change workplace culture for the good. I’ve often said a leader can go a long way if they ask this very simple question: “What do you think?”

Besides that big question, I recently discovered two more great questions as well: “How can I help?” and “What can I do better?”

They may seem simple to ask. For many leaders, however, having the vulnerability to ask these three questions is challenging. Still, with a dose of humility, leaders can gain great insight into how they and the culture surrounding them are perceived by others.

Follow Through Means Everything

Don’t think for one minute that it’s enough to ask a few questions, though. As a leader, you also have to be serious about listening and doing something with the feedback you’ve been given.

This may feel very different for a leader because it requires you to switch roles with your subordinate staff. In this way, you become one seeking feedback and advice. This exercise also makes you accountable to the staff for follow-through and demonstrable change, all of which is good from a retention and loyalty standpoint, as well as a way to break free of the stigma of having bad company culture.

Think about the external impact this can have, too. You now have a concrete story that can be told and retold by those in your organization. When staff hear negative comments about your organization and its culture they can now counter that by acknowledging the past and outlining the strides you’ve made toward improvement.

One extra tip: Someone recently told me that ‘feedback’ can have a negative connotation that implies the conversation will be negative. The person suggested using the word ‘advice’ instead to appear more optimistic and helpful.

Obstacles to Change

At times, I’ll come to an organization that has expressed interest in having me conduct a ‘Client Loyalty Assessment.’ This is a great first step, but I’ll also want to know what the company is trying to achieve. If I hear that a key decision-maker isn’t on board with the exercise, it is a major red flag. If this person doesn’t believe in the organization’s goals, it won’t be a good experience for anyone. It is also difficult to work around such an obstacle because if the individual resists hearing other’s opinions, there’s no telling what else that person is doing or not doing. In these situations, concerns about their honesty and transparency around client relationships and reporting tend to arise.

One of the exercises I like to use with companies involves asking the question: “What’s not tolerated here?” We break all assumptions and get on the same page about what is accepted behavior and what is not. In a culture of arrogance, the default response is usually, “That’s the way it’s always been.” This approach short-circuits that mentality.

To help further break this cycle, I am partial to The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™. Based on the New York Times bestselling book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni. This program guides teams through a journey to improve in five areas that are key to productive team dynamics: Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results.

To move forward successfully, it’s crucial to collectively learn how to improve the quality of communication so leaders and employees alike can make lasting, positive change and put an end to bad company culture.

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[Editors’ Note: To learn more about this and related topics, you may want to attend the following on-demand webinars (which you can view at your leisure, and each includes a comprehensive customer PowerPoint about the topic):

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This is an updated version of an article originally published on May 27, 2020. This article was most recently updated by the Financial Poise Editors.]

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