Destroy Your Company Culture in 7 Easy Steps

Creating a company culture that inspires you and your team to do the best work possible takes a lot of time and energy. It’s really easy, however, to destroy your company culture. If you want to preserve and build a great culture, avoid doing these things:

Step 1: Hire Quickly

When it’s time to hire a new employee, make sure you take your time and find someone who fits your company’s culture and shares its values.

If you hire too quickly, you run the risk of hiring someone who looks good on paper but doesn’t fit into your company at all. When you hire someone who isn’t a good fit, not only do you risk them quitting quickly, but you also run the risk of bringing down the rest of your team’s morale.

Step 2: Fire Slowly

You should take your time hiring a new employee, but you should not take your time firing someone who isn’t working out.

You might have plenty of reasons for not wanting to fire them – maybe it would take too long to replace them, or their family relies on their paycheck (so you feel bad). Whatever your reasons are for not firing them, if they aren’t a good fit for your team, don’t be afraid to fire them.

A bad attitude is infectious. So, if you keep someone with a bad attitude around too long, the rest of your team will start to have a bad attitude.

If an employee is just mediocre and you keep them around, the rest of your team will think it’s fine to just be okay at their job.

Step 3: Publicly Criticize Your Employees

When you publicly criticize your employees, you bring down everyone’s morale. Your employees will feel bad about themselves and start looking for a new job.

Instead, publicly praise your employees for doing a good job or exhibiting good behavior. Make sure you consistently reward your employees, so they know exactly what to expect.

Step 4: Play Favorites

It’s okay to be friends with your employees; it’s not okay to treat your friends better than everyone else. Once you start treating your friends better and playing favorites, your other employees will stop trusting you and your favorites. Before too long, the rest of your staff will start quitting, and the word will get out that you play favorites – making it difficult to hire anyone.

Step 5: Micromanage

Nobody likes to be micromanaged. You hired your employees because they knew what they were doing, so let them do their job. It’s good to know what your employees are working on, but it’s not good to be constantly checking up on them.

Instead of micromanaging, clearly define each person’s job description, then trust them to get their job done. Remember, they’re adults, so treat them like an adult unless they give you reason not to trust them (then, consider if they’re really a good fit for your company).

Step 6: Don’t Live Your Values

As the leader and owner of your company, you should live and breathe your company’s values. If you’re not living by your values, then your employees have no reason to live by them, either. So, lead by example and make all your decisions based on your company’s values.

Step 7: Don’t Build a Culture at All

There are two ways to build a company culture – by taking the time and energy to craft a productive and inspiring culture, or by letting your culture emerge on its own. If you let your culture emerge on its own, you’ll end up with a culture that doesn’t inspire your employees to do their best work.