the most enlightened leader in the world,

and you could have what I call an

'Unintended toxic culture'-

what that means is that people are working around each other

and not with each other.

There are cliques that are creating

an in-group and an out-group,

or other kinds of things that are really preventing people

from feeling safe and comfortable,

and also is preventing work getting done.

So, you as a leader, wanna take a good look in the mirror

and do that radical self-examination to make sure

that you are not promoting a difficult culture

in your work environment.

Listen, nobody sets out to create a toxic culture.

No one intends for it to be difficult.

And yet, there are problems brewing inside

of the organization.

What that can look like, for example,

is nobody addresses difficult things or conflict directly.

Instead, they gossip behind people's backs.

Or, you might be the leader who really wants

to bring people on board,

but you hire employees who maybe aren't that good,

and you might not be addressing difficult issues

in the workplace.

So then you have these poor performers

that nobody's addressing,

and it brings down the performance of everybody.

Those are just a couple

of examples of what unintended toxic cultures are.

So as a leader,

you have to start increasing your own self-awareness

to understand what are your natural concerns

and blind spots.

And also it's really important to look very keenly

at your culture and to make sure you have a number

of people you can check in with

so that you might be appraised

if you have a toxic culture.

People talk about culture and the way they talk about it,

I feel like it just means we like each other.

Now, I think it's really important

in an environment to like each other,

that's part of culture.

But the other elements of culture are ones you should think

about that are important

to getting work done in your environment.

Do you want proactive people?

Make sure you identify that

for yourself and for your organization,

and hire proactive people.

Maybe you're in a certain environment

where mistakes are not an option.

So you want people who are analytical and methodical,

and will measure twice and cut once.

Those are the kinds of people that you wanna then hire,

and then of course you wanna reward that kind of behavior.

Another thing you can do is be the leader

that you need to be,

and communicate to the team,

deliver difficult messages with diplomacy,

and deal with your team in a way which encourages them,

not which beats them down and slows them down.

Those kinds of elements are helpful to you

when you think about culture.

The one thing I want you to take away is:

that when you think about culture,

don't just think about liking each other,

think about the actual traits

and qualities that you need to get your business done,

and that you want people to work together

using those traits-

and that will steer you in the right direction of culture.

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