When your company begins to experience structural issues, it is important to move fast to avoid costly problems, according to Construction Executive magazine.
Companies with toxicity problems typically face major risk areas involving financial issues, legal issues, employee turnover, reputation issues, and declines in productivity and employees’ physical health.
To determine whether your company may have a toxicity problem, Construction Executive recommends asking yourself the following questions.
- Do you trust the people inside your company, and do they—and should they—trust you?
- When you are facing a difficult problem in your company, can you have a difficult conversation with genuine feedback, or do you get silence in return?
- Are you losing good people to lateral moves or leaving with no explanation?
- Do your company’s core values match your company’s behavior? And can anyone in your company name those values if asked?
- Do you tolerate bad ethics, bullying and bad behavior?
- Are there multiple sets of rules depending on who you are in your company? Multiple sets of rules mean operationally you have no rules.
- Are phrases such as “That’s the way we’ve always done it” prevalent in meetings?
If answering these questions was tough, you need to assess your culture and work to improve it by acknowledging your mistakes; ensuring your company’s values, mission and vision align with how your company operates; ensuring you are not letting bad behavior slide; addressing the issue if your biggest people problems are in key leadership roles; and having real, honest discussions.
