Building and protecting a healthy company culture takes at least as much intentional action as sustaining physical fitness in a human body. By continually investing in cultural health, leaders not only defend their people against workplace toxicity, they also reinforce the organization’s foundation for profitability, innovation, and resilience. Culture-strengthening leaders make five purposeful moves to get the results they want: modeling desired behaviors, attending to regular employee feedback, addressing values violations promptly, communicating openly through change, and promoting only culture-building A-Players.
Even leaders whose organizations are unhealthy can begin implementing these five tactics to root out and heal toxicity and restore cultural health.
It can all begin today. With you.
Model the Behaviors You Want to See
Your corporate values may occupy prime real estate on a wall or bulletin board somewhere, but unless your people see them playing out in your own attitudes and actions, the words are meaningless. People only follow leaders they trust.
For example, if your company says it values honesty, don’t compromise the truth. Anywhere. Avoid cutting corners, fudging figures, promising but not delivering.
If you want your people to treat one another with respect, make sure you speak respectfully, even to those with whom you disagree.
Only when you are authentically exhibiting “the way we do things here”—and taking visible responsibility for your own shortcomings—can you expect others to listen when you challenge their off-target behaviors. This does not mean being soft as a leader but leading with candor and empathy.
Pro Tip: Ensure your company’s values are actionable. Get clear on what behaviors you expect to result from those values. How should managers act on them? Salespeople? Office administrators? Yourself? If values are merely abstract aspirations, your people may develop social norms that look nothing like your ideal.
Solicit and attend to regular employee feedback
Great leaders know the state of their people. What are conditions like for the employees upon whom your company’s success depends? The best way to find out is to conduct regular employee surveys.
Crafting surveys well requires careful consideration. What elements of company culture do you most want to monitor? Get some ideas by reading employee reviews (of your company and/or others) on sites like Glassdoor or Indeed. What reasons do employees often give for being dissatisfied with their jobs? Design questions to elicit feedback on those particular aspects of your workplace.
For your surveys to be effective, however, employees need to know they can speak freely without fear of reprisal for negative reporting. If toxicity is creeping into your organization, you need to be open to hearing difficult comments while remaining calm. And when you do, it is vital to respond firmly to eliminate the root causes of problems. Following careful cross-checking of facts, remedial action should follow swiftly. (See the following section.)
Pro Tip: Creating surveys is one area where your favorite AI tool can be helpful. Prompt it to suggest some well-worded questions that get to the heart of your culture concerns. Then refine them to suit your unique organization. Avoid multiple-choice questions; instead let people write their own answers, using their own words.
Address cultural values violations promptly
With honest employee feedback, you may discover pockets of toxicity within your workplace culture. Uncomfortable as the truth may be, lean into the opportunity to initiate healing for those who’ve been negatively impacted. They may be feeling burned out, undervalued, stressed, frequently ill, or confused about their role; they may have even been abused. Meet one-on-one with these individuals. Express your genuine care for them and a desire to make amends. Work together to develop remedies for the damage they’ve experienced.
But what to do about the causes of toxic environments?
Workplace culture-rot usually enters an organization through one or more of these three sources: leadership, social norms (unhealthy but accepted behavior patterns), or work design.
For problem individuals in leadership, meet one-on-one with them to address the issues. For some, patient and purposeful coaching toward greater emotional intelligence and healthier behaviors may produce lasting change. Regular check-ins will show steady improvement. Others, unfortunately, will persist in their ways and need to be let go for the good of the company.
On the other hand, social norms are group-based issues. They are weeds with complex root systems. First, identify that root system so you can plan an appropriate strategy for eradicating it. Then, implement a plan the group voluntarily signs onto. You will need to reframe the new norms for them as desirable, doable, and rewarding. Keep checking in to monitor and recognize progress. Changing social norms requires transforming the expectations and behavioral “muscle memory” of a whole group. Be patient and persistent.
Finally, if work design is contributing to a toxic culture, brainstorm with your affected people to implement improvements. They will be your best allies in recognizing where tasks can be simplified or efficiencies improved. They can pinpoint where physical demands or unreasonable workloads are draining your team unnecessarily. You’ll find, as most leaders do, that when your workers’ autonomy increases and their workload takes on reasonable size and pace, the workplace culture flourishes.
Pro Tip: Prevention is the best cure for cultural toxicity. Foster a positive work environment where people feel appreciated, challenged to contribute their best, and empowered to keep growing. Proactively mentor your workforce [link: https://richardjbryan.com/leadership/2025/10/13/leadership-mentoring-how-to-reinvest-todays-expertise-in-tomorrows-leaders/ ]—especially those showing potential for leadership—before problems arise. Remember how rare good role models are. Be one. And train more of them.
Communicate transparently during change
Change is unsettling. Honest and open communication with employees can restore calm. Employees who understand the nature, extent, and importance of a change that impacts their workplace are more likely to see the change in a positive light. It is when workers become fearful of secretive dealings and surprise announcements that change introduces toxicity.
Just as employee surveys reveal what your workforce is thinking, open communication from leadership lets employees in on what their leaders are thinking. Be forthright, clear, and careful with your words—especially during change. Communicate the reasons behind the change, the benefits to the company, and the effects employees are likely to experience. When leaders already have a track record of showing genuine concern for the wellbeing of everyone in the organization, employees facing a transition draw reassurance from that foundation of trust.
Pro Tip: During a change of leadership in particular, new leaders need to maintain the trust that was built within their organization. Begin right away with open communication. Employees are hoping for the best; talk to them about how the best is yet to come.
Promote A-players who build healthy culture
It can be tempting to look for future leaders among those who perform well individually without regard for their culture-building abilities. But your best leaders, the true A-Players, are going to be the people who not only hit all their goals, but also help others reach theirs.
If leadership is the most crucial factor in whether a culture turns toxic, ensure you position your strongest culture builders in leadership roles. They’ll be the ones with high emotional intelligence, an ability to communicate honestly, the courage to have difficult conversations and collaborate on problem-solving, and the moral strength to lead by example. All the things we’ve been talking about here.
Pro Tip: Enlist the help of your top performers in developing strategies to maintain the health of your company culture. Your future leaders will emerge as those who excel at ensuring your employees are heard, cared for, equipped, and motivated to meet the organization’s business objectives with pride.
Maintain a healthy company culture with intentional effort
Using the five moves spelled out above, leaders can create and sustain a thriving company culture where employees are highly engaged, psychologically safe, and strongly committed to seeing their organization flourish.
No one-size-fits-all approach to culture building and maintenance will work for every company. To get an objective perspective on ways coaching could boost your company’s cultural health and move you into a strong era of growth, let’s schedule a free consultation call. I’d love to see your organization thrive.
