Beware the Culture Killer

The culture killer can be someone already in your organisation or someone that you bring into the team. The latter is generally easier to identify, as over time we become used to the behaviour of the entrenched culture killer and have worked ways around dealing with them. A culture killer is someone who, for whatever reason does not live the values that are instilled (or are attempting to be instilled) in the team and purposely goes about breaking down the glue that holds the team together.

All too often managers are willing to bring a new employee into the team because of their amazing technical ability and conveniently ignore the behaviours that they exhibit through the hiring process and probation period. Positive team culture is like a gold bar, you work hard to attain it and then put in a safe to ensure that no one will take it away. Be incredibly careful who has access to your gold culture, as once it is gone you not only have to start from scratch you must win back the trust that has been lost within the team.

The "Toxic Employees in the Workplace" report found that good employees are 54% more likely to quit when they work with a toxic employee. In addition, they found extremely strong evidence suggesting that toxic behaviour is contagious. Employees are many times more likely to engage in toxic behaviour if they are exposed to other toxic employees.

I was fortunate to hear an AFL (Australian Football League) High-Performance Manager speak at a conference. He told the story of working with a team who stood a good chance of winning the premiership but felt they needed a goal kicking spearhead to be successful. They recruited an individual into the team who was a proven gun Full Forward but also had a reputation for selfish and undisciplined behaviour. They only needed him for a year or two and the risk of fallout from the behaviour was considered acceptable. Predictably, the individual was a culture killer, and it did not take long for the strong team cohesion to dissolve. The breakdown of culture initiated from this one recruit would precipitate ten hard years where the team languished near the bottom of the ladder. The performance coach admitted that the coaching group underestimated the impact a culture killer could have; he learnt a valuable if not difficult lesson from that experience.

Hire for attitude, train for skill, chasing a quick win by only being interested in skills, not team fit can often be expensive, losing your gold culture. Investing in an employee’s first 12 weeks will ensure that a culture killer is identified early limiting the impact they can have on your culture.