AASP Blog

Encouraging people to put their individual needs second and work together for the collective good of the group is arguably one of the most challenging tasks that leaders face. Nonetheless, this is an essential job requirement to be an effective leader. Whether you are a coach, team captain, or general manager, you must have a strategy for accomplishing this task. Ironically, even though many leaders recognize the importance of getting people to work together on a team, they may not have a solid plan for how they will accomplish this. When there is no strategy, we often find teams lacking in structure on how they can and should work together, which may lead to the creation of a toxic culture. 

What is Toxic Culture

Before we begin discussing what a toxic culture is, first we need to establish the definition of culture. Researchers have defined culture as “a dynamic process characterized by the shared values, beliefs, expectations, and practices across the members and generations of a defined group” (Cruickshank & Collins, 2012, p. 3). Most teams recognize the importance of culture and boast about the quality of their culture in a marketing-style pitch. For example, in an interview conducted by the Marquette Wire with Shaka Smart (Head Coach of the Marquette men’s basketball team), he created a 26-page culture document that outlines his expectations in terms of team values and behaviors. When promoting this strategy, Coach Smart said, “[It] lays out who we want to be, who we strive every day to become, and knowing that we’re never going to be perfect. Our culture doc includes our mission to create and sustain championship-level success, and that’s not just on the court in games, that’s in everything we do” (Block 2023).

Keeping in mind the definition of culture and its significance to leaders, what is a toxic culture? Toxic culture has been conceptualized by five key characteristics, which can include disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive environments (Sull et al., 2022). Furthermore, a toxic culture is incredibly costly to teams trying to achieve high performance. In the article xi, the authors state that “According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a staggering 4.4 million people quit their jobs in April of 2022” (Baird & Sullivan, 2022). You might assume people are leaving because they want more money or better benefits, but you would be wrong. A recent Sloan Management Review study indicated people are 10 times more likely to quit their jobs today because of toxic work cultures rather than subpar compensation or work-life balance” (Sull, et al., 2022). A few common examples are social cliques within soccer teams that create social divides in locker rooms, managerial staff in corporate organizations gossiping behind their coworkers’ backs, players on a basketball team blaming each other for lack of performance, or the coach who publicly punishes individual players, which in turn creates an environment of insecurity. Now that we have a better understanding of these issues, let’s review solutions we can use to overcome them. 

Building a High-Performance Culture

Building a culture that is “toxic-proof” is more of a long-term investment process that cannot be achieved exclusively through short-term gains. When establishing this type of culture within your organization, one element that leaders should strongly factor into their decision-making process is recruiting individuals who meet the characteristics of a force multiplier. This means rather than trying to grow through the “strength in numbers” approach, organizations should focus on recruiting high-impact performers. Leaders who bring on these force multipliers should keep two factors in mind when acquiring this type of talent:

1. Recognize that every individual you bring into your team can achieve greatness with the right type of mentorship and training. Research strongly suggests that when individuals on teams receive high-quality mentorship and training, their performance increases and they are more likely to sustain long-term performance success (Milosevic, et al., 2025).
2. Properly reward “hyper-performers” at or above market rate. When employees who are “hyper-performers” are properly matched with the correct workload and rewards (the volume and quality of work are being fairly compensated), these strategies give employers or team leaders the best chance to improve productivity and reduce burnout (Leiter & Maslach, 2023).

Ultimately, when using these strategies, the research seems to suggest that constructing a team of individuals who meet these characteristics will be 10 times more productive, rather than bringing in people just to “fill-in” positions. (Bersin, 2024). There are other tools and strategies that organizations like mine can use to help corporate and sports teams eliminate toxic team culture. For example, I have found when we help teams focus on identifying talent both inside their organization and potential prospects outside of their organization who may be eligible to join them, they have seen significant improvements in performance. This strategy is based on research that demonstrates how transformational leadership predicted task cohesion and social cohesion, both of which are important factors for performance success (Callow, et al.,2009). In any case, all teams should make it their singular focus to implement strategies that not only can help them overcome toxic cultures from manifesting but also be proactive in staying ahead of this potential issue.

References

• Baird, J., & Sullivan, E. (2022). How to protect your team from a toxic work culture. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2022/06/how-to-protect-your-team-from-a-toxic-work-culture
• Bersin, J. (2024). Boost your team’s productivity by hiring force multipliers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/
• Block, M. (2023, March 2). Meet the 26-page culture document Shaka Smart uses to ‘sustain championship-level success’. Marquette Wire. Retrieved from [Meet the 26-page culture document Shaka Smart uses to ‘sustain championship-level success’ – Marquette Wire]
• Callow, N., Smith, M. J., Hardy, L., Arthur, C. A., & Hardy, J. (2009). Measurement of Transformational Leadership and its Relationship with Team Cohesion and Performance Level. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 21(4), 395–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200903204754
• Cruickshank, A., & Collins, D. (2012). Culture change in elite sport performance teams: Examining and advancing effectiveness in the new era. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 24(3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2011.650819
• Leiter, M. P., & Maslach, C. (2023, March 17). To Curb Burnout, Design Jobs to Better Match Employees’ Needs. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/
• Milosevic, M., Rau, K., & Steelman, L. (2025, April 3). A Guide to Building a Unified Culture After a Merger or Acquisition. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/
• Sull, D., Sull, C., & Zweig, B. (2022, January 11). Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/
• Sull, D., Sull, C., Cipolli, W., & Brighenti, C. (2022, March 16). Why Every Leader Needs to Worry About Toxic Culture. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/