A healthy work culture starts with you – the leader. Employees thrive in non-toxic environments that have clearly defined goals, consistent expectations, clear communication, and room for growth.
Creating a healthy culture starts from within, yet it requires an investment from leaders who are willing to take charge and make the changes necessary to avoid:
- High turnover rates – 62% of people quit toxic workplaces
- Unhappy, unproductive employees
- Lost revenue and talent
An organizational culture change can help your business remain steadfast in its commitment to employees while increasing productivity and reducing turnover rates.
4 Steps to Take to Create a Healthy Work Culture in 2025
1. Be a Communicative Leader Worth Following
You have to walk the walk. Employees follow their leaders. If you “talk” without holding yourself to the same standards you expect in the workplace, your employees will do the same. Productivity and commitment are lost when leaders don’t commit to organizational success.
Modeling Your Behavior
You need to be a leader worth following. Be what you expect. Leaders who feel like they’re “above the rules” are often those who experience:
- Legal trouble
- Bad reputations
- Bad culture
Leaders must comply with the rules like everyone else. Integrity is an integral part of my firm. Let me give you an example. One time, a managing partner didn’t think he should track his time, but he expected everyone else to. Not only did we not know how much time he invested or how to bill properly, but think about the message it sent when he told everyone else to track their time.
Leaders must model their behavior but also work on their communication strategy, too.
Leaning on Your Communication Strategy
A key phrase that I use often is, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.” Success happens one conversation at a time. You have two goals in any conversation:
- To understand
- To be understood
Leaders need to take the first step because every conversation matters. As a leader, it’s on you to listen, communicate, and address conflicts. Communicative leaders create healthy work environments by ensuring everyone is on the same page.
If you can do all of these things, it’s time to move on to point two.
2. Build Trust and Trust Your Team
Our team members trust us, and we trust them. Initially, building this rapport with your employees is worth every bit of hard work it entails. Owners who are accustomed to doing everything on their own may find this step challenging.
Passing the torch is a necessity to create a thriving team and work culture that people want to be a part of, and it will require you to be:
- Honest and open
- Confident in your team
- Communicative
- Supportive
And most importantly, when mistakes are made, use this as an opportunity to learn for the team and the person involved. If you make the mistake personally and attack an employee, you’ll fast-track the work environment to toxicity.
Listening skills come in handy when building trust because it’s imperative that you understand the missteps that took place.
Support your team and learn from the mistakes that were made because this is what spurs growth. Teams trust leaders that they grow with, and through all of this, you’ll know that you can confidently rely on your team, too.
You’ll know that you’re building trust when your team can confidently grow with you while not feeling like they’re walking on eggshells all the time.
3. Clarify Roles and Prioritize Growth and Development
Organizational and individual goals must be developed and clarified to create a healthy work environment. You can divide this into two main parts if you like:
- Organization: mission, goals, vision, and strategy
- Roles: how each person fits into the organization
What I do is create a thematic goal for 2 – 4 months and the strategies that help us achieve this goal. First, there’s a goal that the team can rally behind, which should be broken down into 2 – 4 month chunks if they’re too ambitious.
If you want your company to be the largest in the world, this goal is likely too ambitious for teams to follow day-to-day and week-to-week.
Smaller, bite-sized goals that take 2 – 4 months to achieve engage teams and keep them on the path to success.
You’ll have months where things go great and other times when nothing seems to go according to plan. Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage concept helps me overcome these challenges with the green, yellow, and red light concept.
- Green light – Did we hit our goals? Keep going.
- Yellow light – Bump in the road? Reassess. Is the goal still achievable?
- Red light – Hit a major problem? Time to reassess.
So far, these are organizational goals, but to have a higher success in achieving these goals, consider how your employees fit into their roles.
The Working Genius is what I recommend to find people’s strengths and what energizes them. From there, you can put them into roles that energize them. Why? Because energy is crucial if you want to hit your goals.
Over 75% of your employees want to grow in their careers, and providing clarity is one way to achieve this goal. Modern workforces are filled with employees who seek individual growth. Create development plans that allow your workforce to grow while also reaching your organization’s goals and mission.
Create feedback loops that prioritize employee growth and development while allowing them to lean on management.
4. Hold Employees Accountable the Right Way
A healthy work culture involves trusting your team and encouraging growth, but you still have to hold people accountable. Teams must feel like they’re working toward the same goal, and this requires everyone doing their part.
Everyone includes:
- Leaders
- New employees
- Senior employees
But here’s the thing. You should hold employees accountable for doing their own part, and equally as important, teams should hold each other accountable. If a team is shouldering this burden, it leads to greater collaboration, higher morale, and individual growth.
When everyone plays by the same rules and the consequences apply to everyone, this is when employees feel their true value.
As a leader, you need to listen very carefully. Hold yourself accountable, too. Own up to your mistakes and take responsibility.
If you follow all of these integral steps, you’ll cultivate a work culture that you can be proud of creating. Growth and development, cohesion when working towards your organization’s goals, and an energetic workforce starts with you – the leader.
To learn more about creating a healthy work environment or to schedule an appointment, click here.