Workplace Toxicity and Fire-Fights

As a leader looking to secure a future for your company, it's going to be necessary to look beyond the bottom line in order to evolve. You might stare at it hard every day - but be assured, the only thing that will set profit spinning ahead of the exponential curve is the mind-set of the people you employ.

Many CEOs believe they can hire a consultant to take the whole thing off their hands and deliver an engaged culture without any effort on their part, to find themselves mistaken in the wake of what can be huge outlay. Nobody can take that baton from a company leader and win the transformation game. Winning takes committed, ongoing support.

People want to be loyal to their brand, just as all wild creatures want to be loyal to their territory. Natural instinct drives us together, which is why we can form companies at all!

Denying a deep-rooted drive for autonomous success by ordering performance that does not arrive is surely a self-defeating exercise?

Does it not make more sense to work with Nature and harvest burgeoning rewards on a quid-pro-quo basis? Isn't that the only way to make sure something is sustainable?

An evolving culture is formulating quid-pro-quo in ways that benefit everyone, by energising the workforce with 3 key motivators;

• Autonomous innovation (trusting people to come up with solutions themselves)

• Collaborative involvement (taking care of priorities together)

• Purposeful learning (in any number of forms to benefit them and the company)

When these key motivators are absent (e.g. where directives are given instead of developmental opportunities), this happens;

• People lose heart in their own sense of purpose

• People leave the simplest of tasks to 'someone else'

• People look for other means to gain mental stimulation

Fire-fights break out as these features override operational integrity. Everyone is scared of making the slightest mistake so not only are key issues getting swept under rugs to catch light later, employees ask questions repeatedly, and double-check, and cause problems anyway as we tend to run into exactly what we're trying hardest to avoid.

Recognising that you have a toxicity problem is the first step. The scene may look complicated, half-hidden, entrenched and horrendously difficult to understand, but in reality, human beings are pretty steadfast in knowing when change is badly needed. "It always looks impossible until it's done," says Canva. I can help you to see the wood for the trees with a free Assessment - a confidential chat, a meeting with your team, and a quiet stroll round the shop floor will provide all that's needed for a concise Report that illuminates where you need to be focusing attention.

kathy@worldlinetraining wants to offer you this chance, so that you can happily join the forerunners of modern excellence in British industry. Get in touch to talk about how you can do just that with what you already have.