149: #LeaderSHIFT from Enabling to Encouraging

We’re continuing with the #LeaderSHIFT series on the podcast this week. These episodes are very direct & to the point, where we'll talk about the different challenges leaders tend to face & how to shift into becoming an influential leader who leads a healthy culture & engaged team!

In this episode, I’m sharing how you can shift from unknowingly enabling a toxic & dysfunctional culture to encouraging healthy culture change!

Need one-on-one help with your employee engagement plan? Schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here!
www.baproinc.com/ep149

Apply to join the New Leader, BIG IMPACT Coaching Program to level up your leadership & build an engaging team... even if the culture is toxic & without management's support! https://baproinc.com/newleaderbigimpact

Questions about this episode? Topic suggestions for future episodes? Send them to [e-mail]

Let's chat about this episode on Twitter: @BAPROINC or IG: @CultureBuildingPRO

The Culture Building like a PRO Podcast: Simple ways to transform your company culture... Today! | Company Culture | Culture Building | Organizational Culture | Employee Engagement | Effective Leadership | Servant Leadership |
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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to the Culture Building Like aPro podcast, helping small business owners and
managers lead a company culture where employeesare engaged to do their best work because
they want to and not because theyhave to. Now, let's jump start
your culture transformation with company culture strategists, leadership coach and trainer Dianna Appling.

(00:28):
Happy Tuesday, and thanks for listeningto the Culture Building Like a Pro Podcast.
I'm Deanna and I'm excited to beback with you again for another episode
in our hash tag Leadershift series.And if you've been listening for a while,
you know that these series we getreally direct and to the point about
the common challenges that we face asleaders, how to overcome those challenges,

(00:49):
and more importantly, how we canintentionally shift into the level of leadership that
creates an impact and influences excellence amongyour team. I remember once upon a
time working with a manager who wasvery good at her job, very resourceful,

(01:10):
knowledgeable of the company as a whole, knew the processes in and out.
Overall, great manager. She couldget things done. And the same
manager often always talked about how theteam wasn't competent enough, how she needed
the right people to work with herhow she didn't like some of the things

(01:33):
that she saw with the team,and even some things about other leaders in
the company. You know, shewas very vocal, i'll say, about
the things that she noticed as problemson the job. And the interesting thing
is that out of all of thecommentary that she had about what was wrong

(01:53):
and why things were so toxic andwhy certain leaders should not be in their
job, I mean, it wouldeven get to the point where it was
quite a bit disrespectful some of thethings that she said about other people in
leadership. And not only was shesaying these things among peers, but also
to her team. I found itso interesting that she could have such strong

(02:19):
thoughts and opinions about how everything andeveryone around her was just so terrible and
things were just so backwards and notworking correctly, and she couldn't understand why
she wasn't getting the responsiveness the engagementof her team. She couldn't understand why

(02:40):
it seemed like they never did anythingright. And it wasn't until we sort
of had a conversation about her contributionto the overall culture and dynamic of how
the team was functioning that she didn'trealize that she had a part to play,
and of course that wasn't something thatwent over as effective initially when we

(03:04):
have the conversation, But eventually shestarted to realize that she could take a
minute and start to look at herselfand how she was adding to the dynamic
overall. And many times, whenit comes to leadership, we can unknowingly
contribute to the things that we dreadabout our team and our jobs. It's

(03:27):
a blind side that we just don'trecognize until it's put in front of us,
until we have to really get tothe root cause and core of why
these things are happening. So intoday's episode, we are talking about how
we can intentionally shift from enabling toxicand dysfunctional dynamic among our team and in

(03:52):
the culture to encouraging a healthy one. So here are three fairly common ways
that leaders can tend to subconsciously contributeto an unhealthy culture with their team.
Number One, you do this byallowing poor and inappropriate behavior. Now this

(04:13):
has sort of a double edged sword. On one hand, you could just
witness some of the things that yourteam is doing. Maybe they're being disrespectful
to each other, not having appropriatelanguage, doing things that you find to
be unprofessional or just overall unproductive inthe workplace or among your team. But

(04:35):
on the opposite side of that,you could also be enabling that dysfunction by
being the person who displays it.And because you don't see a problem with
behaving in inappropriate ways and using languagethat really isn't suitable for the workspace,

(04:57):
reacting out of anger. I mean, the list can go on and on
of what that looks like. Butbecause you're the one doing it and it
seems normal to you, nine timesout of ten, you are more apt
to enable that same and appropriate behaviorwith your team and it becomes normal and
how you guys interact with each other. It's really tempting to sort of turn

(05:20):
a blind eye to any negative behaviorthat happens in the workplace. But this
contributes to a toxic and dysfunctional culture. And when this type of behavior is
common and accepted and considered normal,it easily spreads like wildfire, and it

(05:40):
ultimately opens the door for more toxicityin the workplace. Another way that leaders
can annoyingly contribute to enabling a toxicor dysfunctional culture is by modeling toxic leadership
traits. So, as I justsaid, a minute ago. If poor
behavior and unprofessional behavior is normal foryou to display, it becomes a part

(06:08):
of the norm in your culture,and as a leader, your behavior sets
the tone for the entire team.So maybe you aren't using an appropriate language
or yelling and showing anger in avery unproductive way, but you could be
displaying toxic leadership traits by being amicromanager, showing favoritism among your team,

(06:31):
not being a good communicator, andultimately, your team feeds off of this
and they begin to adopt these sametraits because it's normal, this is what
we do, this is how weoperate here, and toxic leadership traits,
whether we are doing it intentionally ornot, it ultimately breeds a toxic culture.

(06:57):
And a third way that leaders canunknowingly enable toxic and dysfunctional culture is
when you fail to hold your teamaccountable. Lack of accountability is not good
for anyone, especially when you're expectedto uphold performance standards, meet deadlines,
accomplish goals overall, if you're expectedto be a professional, When you fail

(07:23):
to hold your team accountable for theiractions or even a lack in their performance,
it sends a message that accountability isoptional. It sends a message that
I don't necessarily have to be heldaccountable for how things turn out. I
just do what I can, whichcould be the bare minimum, and that's
it. This also contributes to dysfunctionbecause ultimately, you want a team that

(07:47):
wants to do their best work,and when they aren't held accountable for things
that they're expected to do, they'llcontinue to do those same things and ultimately
does reflect negatively on the team andfor the company. So now that we
know a few common ways that wecan have blind spots as leaders and help

(08:11):
contribute to a culture being toxic ordysfunctional, let's talk about how you can
change this, how you can shiftfrom enabling that to encouraging change among your
team and in the culture. Thefirst thing is to model what healthy,
supportive and professional behavior looks like.Simply put, just lead by example.

(08:37):
And I know it's simple to say, and I know that that's something we've
all heard so many times over theyears. I mean, after all,
we hear that as kids, bea leader, you set the tone.
Lead by example. As simple asthis is, sometimes there are challenges and
barriers that can hinder us from beingthe best example for these things. So

(08:58):
what I want you to do isto not look at leading by example as
you being the person who is withoutflaw, you being the person who has
all the answers, you being theperson who never makes mistakes. First of
all, we know that that's unrealistic. But secondly, having that perspective about
modeling this kind of behavior, itcomes off as if you are exempt from,

(09:24):
first of all, being human,but second of all from the overall
challenges of just being a professional.And that's not very relatable for your team
to see because none of us,in leadership or not, can uphold that
standard. So what I would encourageyou to do is to look at it
as being proof, simply being proofthat sure I am a human, I

(09:46):
make mistakes, I don't have allthe answers. I'm learning every day just
as you are, and at thesame time striving to still operate, behave,
and perform in ex lens. Doingthis allows them to see you as
someone who wants to do their best, and it shows them what healthy leadership

(10:09):
looks like. So how do youdo this? The very basic thing showing
respect, being respectful of people,having empathy, being professional in your interactions
when you're a team witnesses qualities likethis, and they see it in action,
they see it in your response ofhow you address conflict problems, how

(10:35):
you problem solve, they are morelikely to follow suit, and that's ultimately
what you want in order to createa healthy dynamic. The second thing is
to lead with influence and not ego. Be of service to your team.
Sometimes leadership titles can bring on acertain persona of having power in the work

(11:00):
and among your team, And whileyou may have authority to do certain things,
having that title isn't about you,It isn't about me. It's much
bigger than us, and it's aboutbeing of service. So instead of focusing
on the personal power that you haveand the recognition that you have on your

(11:20):
team, focus on serving them anddoing that by prioritizing their needs. Approach
things in a way where you arefocused on how do you build trust,
how do you build a culture ofsupport, how do you model the type
of dynamic that you want to seethem do? And that's simply by influence,

(11:41):
which is ultimately what leadership is about. In the third way, to
foster a culture where you're shifting fromenabling a dysfunctional one to encouraging culture change
and a healthy and supportive culture isby delegating. I know you probably weren't
expecting that to be on this list, but it's very, very beneficial to

(12:07):
building a competent team. It displaysthat you trust your people. Your team
was made to be your team becausethey have experience, credentials, and skill
sets that add value to the overallperformance of your team. Utilize those things
because you are in a leadership position. That does not mean that you are

(12:30):
the person who has to do everything. And quite honestly, if you are
approaching leadership in that way, Ican pretty much bet that you aren't operating
your fullest potential as a leader,and you are enabling your team to be
stagnant and not encourage growth and developmentin their own skills. So when you

(12:50):
focus on delegating, you're empowering yourteam to take ownership of their work,
to grow on the job, toacquire the skills that they need to be
better on the job, which isvery necessary for you to create a healthy
team, dynamic and culture. Ifthis episode was helpful for you, I
would love to know what you thoughtabout it, and you can share that

(13:13):
with me by leaving an honest rating. And review in Apple podcasts or wherever
you're listening from, or you cansend an email directly to me, and
that addresses culture at Business advocates prodot com. If you've listened to this
episode and you realize that perhaps youhave a blind spot and how you are

(13:33):
contributing to the overall dynamic of yourteam, maybe you are noticing that some
of your habits in leadership aren't encouragingchange, but it's enabling the dysfunction.
I don't want you to beat yourselfup about it. I actually applaud you
for being reflective and building that selfawareness muscle so that you can do the

(13:56):
most important thing, and that's implementchange, shift and to the level of
leadership that you desire to be andmake an impact. And if you're looking
for help in doing so, Iencourage you to apply for my coaching program,
New Leader, Big Impact, whereyou don't have to do it alone
and you can get better at adaptinghealthy leadership practices and more importantly, seeing

(14:22):
the results of that among your teamand in their performance. And if you're
interested in doing that, you canapply by simply going to be aproinc dot
com. Slash EP one four nineremember that leadership is about influence and it's
not about ego. While you cannotand I cannot be an example of a

(14:48):
quote unquote perfect leader because we arehuman, you can be proof that intentional
people driven impactful leaders do exist.That simply means that you are a leader
who is committed to bringing out thebest in people and serving them in the
best capacity possible. And that onlystarts by first looking at how we are

(15:13):
contributing to our team, to theculture, and to the bigger picture,
so that we can ensure that weare fostering the right traits, the right
behaviors, and influencing our team todo the same. Have a great week.