Cultivate Your Culture: How to Disrupt Toxic Behaviours on Teams
6 min read
What you’ll learn
Creating strong connections between team members
Identifying and removing toxic behaviours
Measuring team culture
In the fifth episode of Cultivate Your Culture, Zoran spoke to retired Olympian Monique Kavelaars on dealing with toxic behaviors in team environments. Monique is the founder of Kavelaars Consulting and works to facilitate strong teams both in athletics and business.
Culture is Non-Negotiable
When asked what team culture means to her, Monique explained that culture as a whole is a multi-faceted way of life or being for a group of people. It’s made up of individual morals and values that are reflected in patterns of interaction, and it is the basis of how we connect to each other. Most importantly, culture exists whether we are actively participating in it or not, and patterns of interaction within culture will change if they’re not being managed. This is why it’s in the team’s best interest to invest in the idea of creating and maintaining a culture that promotes positive interaction between teammates. Without this management, behaviours can turn toxic.
When identifying the type of culture you want for your team, Monique says to begin with recognizing behaviours that are expected of all members She uses an example of a Norwegian ski team who had three major expectations of the players: Be humble, be inclusive, and share a meal together at least once a week. The example is simple and points to the fact that these behaviours don’t have to be intensive. The purpose is to find what creates trust and connection between your teammates. Monique stresses the importance of trust, more so than any other element of being a team member, because trust is what teammates will fall back on when things go wrong. It takes trust to ask for help and to know that your teammate will do what’s best for everyone (rather than just themselves).
Buy In, or Get Out
Consistency is vital to maintaining your culture. There are consequences to how teammates interact with each other that can be observed in performance, so cultivating team culture needs to be an everyday priority in order to compete to the fullest. Examine your team’s cohesiveness: do they trust each other? Do they apologize to each other? Do they gossip, hold grudges, or keep secrets? If you’re observing toxicity in your team culture, address it in conversation, and coach your team through it. Monique also states the importance of holding every member accountable for bad behaviour. She’s seen teams where the star players are the most toxic members, and the hesitancy of the organization to address it hurts the rest of the team. There should not be accommodation for behaviors that negatively impact the team because when there is, everyone’s performance suffers. The mindset should always be team first. Look to the team leaders to buy in to team culture and have them set examples for keeping other team members in line.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Like other guests on this podcast, Monique gives many ways to measure team culture. The first is performance of the team. In a sports setting this would be wins vs losses, or in businesses it would be growth and profit. Another strong metric of team culture is the rate of turnover. How many good team members do you lose, and are people wanting to come aboard your team for the culture? It’s also good to look at who stays with the team even when performance is suffering- does your team still want to work hard even after a loss, or is motivation fleeting? Finally, look at how invested your team members are in each other. Does every team member feel their work is valued?
Protecting the culture of your team starts at the hiring process. Clarify the culture of your team during interviews and get to know the person of interest to see if their values align with what you can offer them. Don’t bring on individuals who will throw a wrench in your operation just because they have the skills you’re looking for. Instead, prioritize individuals who have the work ethic, openness, and ability to positively contribute to your team’s culture. Finally, facilitate connection, engagement, and inclusion of every member of your team. Either buy in, or get out.
Making it Happen
Click here to learn more about creating team cohesiveness. This prompts trust and connection between team members.
Check out our third episode to hear more about engaging teammates.
Monique suggests 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, Culture Map, and Culture Code. Read up!
