When the day is sunny, cloudless, warm and bright, I am at my best.  In fact, most people I know prefer the light and enjoy being outdoors when the sun is shining bright. Even your indoor time is better because you know the outdoors are so beautiful.  It makes you want to open the windows and let that good stuff inside.

I have found the same holds true in the workplace.  It is good to keep things well lighted.   Bad behavior tends to occur during the cover of darkness.  Not only is it a good idea to light your actual office or work area, it is also a best people practice to light up your company culture. The company culture needs a good dose of light to keep things headed in the right direction because negative and toxic actions most likely happen in darkness.  In the famous Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the worst behavior of the prison guards occurred during the nighttime when fewer people were around to watch them beat and torment their prisoners.

Toxic managers, office jerks and bullies only survive because they are allowed to spread their toxic venom under the cover of darkness. This darkness comes in the form of leaders looking the other way, human resource professionals siding with inhumane treatment of employees, posting code of conduct policies that are not followed by leadership, Alpha Males who are allowed to create mobs to terrorize individual targets in the organization, coworkers who don’t want to get involved, CEO’s who prefer to keep high-performing jerks regardless of the body count, or the mere fact not one leader is brave enough to step forward and call out the toxic individual’s behavior.  Firing an employee should not be an easy or enjoyable process but sometimes it is needed to save the organization.

Is there sufficient light in your organization? Do you have the official policies but subversive work is conducted behind the scenes in the dark of night?  Is there open communication up and down the organization? Start a revolution of light. Walk into the light and bring some people with you.

Image: iStockPhoto

One time I received a phone call from a recruiter asking me to consider the top HR position of a local company. The recruiter stated the top leader of the company was essentially the devil incarnate, yet they needed the HR executive to create a great workplace.  In other words, the CEO was evil but they wanted a work environment that was employee-friendly.

The recruiter became upset with me when I told her the scenario would never work.  Not with me.  Not with anyone. Not even a miracle worker could turn the culture around as long as the current CEO was in power.

Corporate culture flows down from the top.  It flows down from the CEO, not the HR department.

Have you been challenged with the task of creating a positive corporate culture?  Unless you are the CEO, it is doubtful you will have much luck changing the culture from negative to positive, bad to good, mildly unfriendly to moderately friendly or from downright hell to heaven.

The CEO must be the champion of the company’s culture.  The personality of the organization tends to follow the traits of a strong CEO.  Without his or her strong support, commitment and role modeling in action, it will likely be an uphill battle to rid the company of bad organizational habits supported by the leadership team.

Leadership author and speaker John Maxwell has very wisely stated, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” This certainly holds true for company culture.

If you want to create a high-performance work culture that attracts the best and brightest talent, you must first successfully convince your CEO to lead your corporate culture team.  And it is important to realize a Great Workplace Initiative is not a project with a definite beginning and end.  This will be a never-ending process of molding your company’s personality.  Just like individuals should always be in a continual state of learning and changing, the organizational unit should be changing as well.

When clients call and want us to help them mold their company culture, my response is, “take me to your leader.”

This past summer our family went deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida. Along with the others on our boat, we had a fantastic, relaxing, fun and exhilarating time.  Plus, we caught hundreds of fish that day.  We joked around, had fun and were focused on the job at hand: fishing.

(Picture: Kevin and daughter Katie after a day of deep sea fishing off the coast of Destin, Florida.)

I love to have fun.  But I also love to work.  My life goal has been to have fun while I work.  My goal is to live one life no matter where I am.

Who are you when you go to work? Are you the same person your spouse married?  Are you that same thoughtful, caring parent your children see most every day? Are you the one who takes your family on fun vacations and relaxes and has a good time? I think the world would be a better place if we lived one life and remained that one person family members love at home.

My hope is that I will be the same guy at work, home, church, fishing or wherever I go.

In our society, however, there seems to be pressure to morph into Type A, no nonsense business freaks at 8:00 am each workday.   We are not supposed to care how the work gets done as long as it gets done.  Would you want your spouse to work for you?  Would you want your son or daughter to work for you?  Better yet, would you want one of your dearly loved family members to work for the worst leader in your company?

If your answer was no to any of these questions, you need to make some changes.

First, everyone deserves respect. We need to make sure we treat all people, whether employees or family members, with respect and dignity 24 hours/day.

Second, we need to lead one, consistent life, whether we are at work or at home. The struggle between work and life happens when we see the two competing for each other.  Leaders who demand employees choose work over family will eventually lose.  They may win the short-term battle for the employee’s time but will ultimately lose the talent war and the employee may lose their family.

Third, accept who you are. The pressure to morph into something you are not from 8 to 5 is more than anyone can bear over the long run.  If the office does not like who you are, find another company, career, workplace, or start your own company.  Be yourself and live one life.

Fourth, live your values. Some people are comfortable when the lines are blurred between right and wrong; when values can be stretched to match the situation.  That is an uncomfortable zone for me.  I suspect it is an uncomfortable zone for you as well.  Fuzzy values and inconsistent living is no man’s land. If you won’t put up with fuzzy values at home, do not allow it at work either.  Live one life.

Fifth, listen to that voice inside your head. I believe there is such a thing as right and wrong.  There is a small little voice inside my head that tells me when something doesn’t feel right. No, I’m not crazy or hearing voices or taking some new medication.

How does this topic relate to Great Workplaces or company culture? Employees are looking for authenticity. Leaders who are authentic live the same life at work and at home.  They do not put on one face for the office and another face for home.  They have found the freedom of being one person.

Be yourself and your work environment will have a greater chance to succeed.  Be that leader who loves his/her family at night and weekends.  But don’t lock that person up when you go to work.  People at work are looking for compassion too.  To win over the head, hands and hearts of your employees you need to be yourself – live one life.

If you were faced with an evil, illegal, unethical or highly questionable business practice sanctioned by your leaders, would you have the character to stand up and declare your disapproval, even if it meant losing your job?  Would you walk away from a steady paycheck if your company’s leaders were unwilling to correct their wayward practices? When the eyes of evil are upon you the act of conscientious separation can be a very, very difficult moment in your life.

This is our hope: when faced with evil, we will stand up for what is right, good and honorable.

Group Behavioral Norms

The problem is that group behavior tends to create norms and patterns of behavior that tend to force people to conform in order to feel part of the team. That is why belonging to the right company culture is absolutely necessary for the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of employees over the long term. The people in power at your company – president, CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CHRO, board of directors, etc. – have enormous control over the company’s cultural climate and group behavior.  Company culture flows down from the top.  It does not bubble up from the mail room or permeate the organization from human resources.  Company culture is a reflection of the leader’s personality.

Follow the Leader

Employees tend to follow their leader. I once observed the grotesque transformation of an administrative assistant. She changed from a rather nice person to an extremely difficult, overbearing, hateful and simply rude dominatrix after working a few years for her boss who exhibited the same traits.  She found her incentive plan paid better when she exhibited her boss’s behaviors.  She was mirroring and conforming to her supervisor’s behavioral norms. The leader’s evil ways rubbed off on her.  Her former nice self was not compensated as well so she shoved that character into the closet and locked the door.

The executive’s control of incentive payments changed her in a very disturbing and negative way. Sometimes soccer moms are not immune from morphing into whatever behavior pays the most money so the kids can have the latest brands, gadgets, technology and private education.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Consider the famous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. College students volunteered to play the role of either prisoner or prison guard.  The result: only after six days the planned two-week experiment had to be abruptly halted as the college students playing prison guards morphed into evil dictators who levied psychological abuse on their fellow students playing the role of prison inmate.

Many of the prisoners were found laying on the floor in fetal positions experiencing mental breakdowns as a result of the significant levels of psychological mistreatment.  Can you imagine what would have happened if the experiment continued for two weeks?

According to psychology professor and leader of the now famous experiment, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, said, “the planned two-week study was terminated after only six days because it was out of control. Good boys chosen for their normalcy were having emotional breakdowns as powerless prisoners,” Zimbardo stated. “Other young men chosen for their mental health and positive values eased into the character of sadistic guards inflicting suffering on their fellow students without moral compunction, said Zimbardo.

And those “good guards” who did not personally debase the prisoners failed to confront the worst of their comrades, allowing evil to ripen without challenge,” stated Dr. Zimbardo.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Professor Zimbardo underestimated the corruptive power of unbridled authority. Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Professor Zimbardo stated, “My guards repeatedly stripped their prisoners naked, hooded them, chained them, denied them food or bedding privileges, put them into solitary confinement, and made them clean toilet bowls with their bare hands.”

There are leaders who will not allow others to question their authority. They believe they can treat employees how they want – good and bad – without repercussions because they sign their paychecks.

Translation to Building Great Workplaces

You may be thinking the Stanford Prison Experiment is in no way related to building a Great Workplace. Ridding the organization of tyrants, jerks, bullies and people with evil intent is merely a good start.  Most importantly, Great Workplaces are dependent on leaders with high levels of integrity, trust and respect, especially when times get tough.

We must also be careful how much absolute power we give our leaders.  Lord Acton observed that a person’s sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. I have seen this scenario come to fruition as business associates became the beneficiaries of enormous financial success.  Sadly, they did not know how to manage the pressures of wealth, power and authority.  Unbridled power can destroy the person and bring the company down along with the toxic executive.

Employ a Truth Telling Advisor

Top executives need someone who can speak to them without fear of being fired. This senior adviser should be able to speak freely with the CEO, even regarding issues that are unpopular or taboo.  CEO’s who are smart will hire a senior advisor who is paid to provide open, honest feedback – even if it hurts. Decisions made by CEO’s in isolation in their executive suite have the potential to cause enormous employee morale issues and severely damage the company’s public image.

Reflective Sunglasses

As the prison guards began to fully assume their role as sadistic rulers, they began to wear reflective sunglasses 24/7. The inability to peer into the eyes of your tormentor was a way for fellow students to distance themselves from their prisoners whom they were severely mistreating.

In the event your company’s leadership begins to distance themselves from employees and peers, be prepared for upcoming decisions that could negatively impact the entire workforce.  Looking straight into the eyes of your leader can be very revealing.  The eyes can be a window into their heart.  Are your leaders in hiding?  Are they creating distance between themselves and employees? The act of creating distance may be an advance warning of impending trouble.

How Good Leaders Turn Evil

Most people do not determine in their hearts to turn evil.  It is a process of compromise over the course of time.  They surround themselves with people who are more interested in the benefits of group acceptance and membership rather than pointing out problems and issues with their leader’s decisions and actions.  The “how” things get done become unimportant just as long as the work gets done. Before you know it, the leader has succumbed to evil.

Edward R. Murrow, the famous American broadcaster depicted in the movie Good Night, and Good Luck once said, “The obscure we eventually see, the completely obvious takes longer.”  In your quest to building a successful company, do not assume the creation of a great work environment is complicated.  In fact, the steps are quite simple, if not completely obvious from a people practice perspective.

Company Culture Flows from the Top

In the people practice profession, there is the tendency to over-complicate work culture and how it impacts the bottom line.  The basic principles of a great work environment are quite straightforward, and rest entirely on the leadership’s shoulders.

One of the most important business strategy questions leaders can ask themselves is, “How do I create a great work environment that attracts, motivates and retains the best and brightest talent?”  You might be surprised the answer is not any of these; above market compensation, best in class benefits, top trends in office space design or technological superiority.  The answer is summed up in one, very important, highly-relational, powerful word: trust.

Definition of a Great Workplace

The Great Place to Work Institute, after twenty years of thorough research on the top high-performance companies in America, formulated their definition of a great workplace as a place where employees “trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with.”

A leadership team who can be trusted by employees is well on its way from average performance to a great workplace where magic happens.  The good news is employees are not necessarily looking for expensive perks, like coffee bars, gyms, restaurants, game rooms, hair salons and spas, daycare, on-site doctors and nurses, media centers, theaters, dry cleaning, or concierge services.  Although these benefits are very nice options, they do not guarantee a great work environment.

When leaders sincerely care for their people and build an environment of trust, employees will believe in the company mission and develop respect for their co-workers.  Trust is like the secret ingredient found in Coke.  Without it, the recipe will not work.  Many have tried to copy great workplaces without trust and failed.  Without trust, the environment will not click, no matter how grandiose the company’s compensation, benefit and work/life programs.  It is amazing how creating an environment of trust, the missing ingredient in many average performing companies, will hasten the transformation of your company into a great workplace with the potential to outperform your competition many times over.

The Seven Leadership Principles

How does a leader create a great workplace through the simple ingredient of trust?  Robert Levering, founder of the Great Place to Work Institute, who has many years of experience researching successful companies, states there are seven principles leaders must follow to build and maintain trust in their organization:

#1 – Leaders share information. The leaders of great work environments are willing to share information with their entire workforce.  They are not afraid to provide employees of all levels important updates about the company’s status, whether financial, non-financial, positive or negative.  Withholding important company information drives a wedge between employees and leaders, creates misunderstandings, fear and distrust among employees who spend most of their waking hours at your place of business.  Since employees are investing their lives with you, isn’t it likely they deserve to know where the company has been, where it needs to go, how it’s performing and how their efforts make a difference?  Open up the internal information highway and you are well on your way to greatness.

#2 – Leaders are accessible. Leaders in great workplaces do not hide in their execu-caves.  Effective leaders get out of their offices and walk around and mingle with employees.  These same leaders allow employees to voice concerns without fear of reprisals or losing their jobs.  Many of the 100 Best Companies hold regular lunches with employees where leadership shares information, shows sincere concern for employees and listens to their concerns.  More importantly, leaders follow-up on employee concerns and improve the work environment with each interaction.

#3 – Leaders are willing to answer the hard questions. Trust is built when employees see leaders who are not afraid to stand up and field the hard questions.  Employees do not expect leaders to have all the answers, but develop strong trusting relationships with leaders who honestly state they do not have an answer but will respond at a later date.

#4 – Leaders emphasize two-way communication. Leaders who actively listen to employees concerns and engage in two-way communications earn the trust of employees.  Most management teams are good at sending communications or orders down the pipelines, but not necessarily comfortable with receiving feedback from their workforce.  Great workplaces have open, two-way channels of communication.

#5 – Leaders always deliver on their promises. Miss this one and you’re done.  Making a promise and not following through is like going thermal nuclear on your workplace; people get burned.  Employees want to know if leaders will deliver on their promises.  This includes the small things as well as the big things.  Treat your employees like your best customers and you should perform very well in this area.

#6 – Leaders show recognition and appreciation. Deep down employees crave recognition for a job well done.  Receiving recognition and appreciation is one of the biggest unmet needs employees have in today’s society.  Go ahead and make a big deal about employee and team accomplishments.  Brag on your employees in front of other employees  Then sit back and watch a special, positive, energizing, company culture develop in front of your eyes.

#7 – Leaders demonstrate sincere, personal concern. According to the most recent Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study, the number one driver leading to employee engagement is determined by whether senior management is sincerely interested in an employee’s well-being.  You can’t fake sincerity.  It shows in your attitude and other non-verbal clues.  If the leaders are not sincerely concerned for their employees as people, your best talent will likely move to a place where they are better appreciated.

Live by these leadership principles and your organization will soon be inundated with resumes from the best and brightest talent in your industry wanting to work for your organization.

* * * * * * *

This article was originally written for The Business Owner Journal and will appear in the November/December 2008 issue.

Before taking a position with a new company, how does one avoid a toxic company culture? Applicants are well within their rights to interview current employees to obtain honest feedback on the company culture. If you are not allowed to interview existing employees of your choice, this could be a sign your future employer is hiding a toxic workplace. For those in the job market, the following are potential clues a workplace has a noxious work environment.

1. Employees are not allowed to voice their honest opinion on workplace issues.
2. Employees fall in or out of leadership’s favor without explanation, and as a result, are included or excluded from company events, projects or meetings.
3. Employees with opposing viewpoints are not welcomed visitors to the executive suite. \
4. Employees are fired without warning or explanation, nor are they given the opportunity to address the real issues leading to their departure.
5. Receptionists and assistants tend to be beautiful, attractive eye-candy for chauvinistic executives.
6. Overweight people are routinely urged by leadership to exercise and made to feel inferior to their slender coworkers and leaders.
7. Employees are expected to assume heavier workloads and work excessive overtime while legitimate requests for headcount increases are denied, all while the company is promoting the importance of work/life balance.
8. Employees with excellent reputations are abruptly fired or transferred because their performance is suddenly unsatisfactory.
9. The human resources department is viewed by leadership as an administrative function or transaction facilitator rather than a partner in developing great people and work environments.
10. The human resources department merely follows orders from leadership and is afraid to question company practices.
11. Rude behavior is routinely allowed.
12. Employees who treat people with trust and respect are considered weak and not management material.
13. Tough, no-nonsense supervisory behavior is rewarded.
14. Executives are assigned reserved parking spaces.
15. The CEO and his/her executive team rarely walk around the office to visit with employees.
16. Company information or news is not consistently shared with the entire workforce.
17. Employees routinely read breaking news about their company in the local newspaper or online news services rather than from internal company publications.
18. Press releases are distributed to public media outlets prior to employee distribution.
19. Political views of the leaders are expressed to employees, and the employees are expected to blindly support and/or vote for those causes.
20. Executives have their own restrooms.
21. The company has a code of conduct policy but does not provide regular training to leaders or employees.
22. Employees are expected to intuitively know what is expected from them without explanation and can be disciplined for not following these unwritten rules of conduct or performance.
23. Employees who raise legitimate company issues are summarily terminated without cause.
24. Executives hire C-level and professional staff outside the approved recruiting process and do not carefully consider the recruit’s management style or their potential impact on company culture.

Anyone can have a bad day and lash out at a coworker. Civilized people will later apologize for their poor behavior. On the other hand, there are certifiably rude people in corporate America who have made incivility, rudeness and verbal abuse a way of life in business. The companies who employ these violent neanderthals in business suits should beware of their negative consequences.

In a recent behavioral study reported by Harvard Business Review, it was determined that workers on the receiving end of verbal abuse became impaired in their ability to perform tasks. According to researchers, “their studies indicate that after exposure to rudeness, people think hard about the incident—whether just ruminating or trying to formulate a response—and those thought processes take cognitive resources away from other tasks.”

“The mere thought of being on the receiving end of verbal abuse hurts people’s ability to perform complex tasks requiring creativity, flexibility, and memory recall,” according to Christine Porath of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Amir Erez of the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida.

The study also found the environmental impact of rudeness to be very profound and overreaching to even those outside the receiving end of the abuse. Researchers stated, “Verbal abuse affects more than just those who experience it directly; it apparently can harm innocent bystanders.”

If you want your company culture to deteriorate with increasing doses of fear, risk aversion, inability to make decisions, and lack of communication, employ or promote rude people. In other words, trying to create a great workplace while employing rude people is a recipe for failure.

It is common for business leaders to allow executives, rainmakers, and movers and shakers to behave in a rude manner, including verbal and psychological abuse. Leaders falsely believe the rude rainmaker’s contributions overcompensate for the toxic venom they spew in the office. Some mistaken leaders believe a toxic tyrant’s abuse causes employees to work harder.

Do you want to build an energized, profitable and high-performance organization? Require your leaders to take a stand against rude behavior. At times doing the right thing is difficult—it calls for strength of character—but it brings great rewards. The CEO must weed out abusive employees no matter their position in the organization. By doing so, the organization can return to an environment conducive to creativity, flexibility, productivity and profitability.