3 Ways Toxic Workplace Culture Hurts Everyone

Cathie Leimbach • June 24, 2025

A toxic workplace can make even the best job feel like a nightmare. When negativity takes over, it creates serious problems that affect everyone involved.


Lower Productivity and Performance - When employees feel stressed, unappreciated, or constantly criticized, their work quality drops. People spend more time worrying about drama than focusing on their tasks. This means projects take longer to finish, and the company's overall results suffer. Workers who feel beaten down simply can't give their best effort.


High Employee Turnover - Nobody wants to stay in a place where they feel miserable. Toxic environments cause good employees to quit and look for better opportunities elsewhere. This creates a costly cycle where companies constantly need to hire and train new people. The remaining staff gets overworked trying to cover for those who left.


Mental Health Problems - Toxic workplaces take a real toll on people's well-being. Employees often experience increased stress, anxiety, and even depression. This doesn't just hurt them at work – it affects their personal lives too. When people dread going to work every day, it impacts their relationships and overall happiness.


To consider whether your culture might be toxic and what you can do about it, click here to learn about 8 Signs of a Toxic Culture and suggestions for overcoming the negativity. 



Having a positive workplace culture isn't just nice to have – it's essential for success. What action could you take to create a healthier workplace culture?

The Power of Strategic Choice: Making Room for What Matters

By Cathie Leimbach • November 10, 2025
In most organizations, the instinct is to add —more goals, more projects, more meetings. But as Juliet Funt, founder of the Juliet Funt Group, teaches in her Strategic Choice process, real leadership strength lies in deciding what to stop doing . Strategic Choice is the intentional narrowing of priorities—cutting away the clutter so teams can focus on what truly drives results. It’s a disciplined act of letting go: saying no to good ideas so there’s room for the great ones. Funt’s approach challenges leaders to pause, think, and create the mental and operational space their people need to perform at their best. By removing unnecessary tasks and misplaced effort, leaders make room for precision, innovation, and real thinking time. This isn’t about doing less—it’s about doing what matters most. When businesses adopt this mindset, they replace overwhelm with clarity and regain control of their time, energy, and outcomes. For small to mid-sized companies, embracing Strategic Choice can transform busyness into focus—and that focus is where sustainable growth begins. Want a quick visual overview? View Strategic Choice: Making Room for What Matters to see how this process helps leaders focus on what truly drives results.

Unlock Your Team's Potential: Fix Dysfunction, Boost the Bottom Line!

By Cathie Leimbach • November 4, 2025
Hey team leaders! Ever wonder why some companies soar while others stumble? Patrick Lencioni's bestseller, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team , nails it: workplace dysfunctions such as no trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoiding accountability, and ignoring results lead to mediocre performance at best. But here's the good news—smart leadership development changes the game! Start with building trust . Train leaders to open up and be vulnerable. Teams bond, ideas flow, and costly mistakes drop. Next, embrace healthy conflict . Teach team leaders to make it safe for team members to share the pros and cons of current or new ways of doing things. This helps everyone understand different perspectives. Then, drive commitment . Leaders who clarify goals, ask everyone to share their level of buy-in, and address their concerns get everyone bought in. People focus on high value work and get more done. . Hold folks accountable through coaching. Leaders learn to give kind, direct feedback by praising good work and calmly providing more training as needed. Turnover plummets and the quality and quantity of work improves. Finally, focus on results . Be clear on expectations. Keep score by monitoring progress weekly or daily. Acknowledge team wins when the goals are met. Winning sports teams pay attention to these Five Behaviors of a Team. How would a World Series winner have been determined this week without trust among the players and coaches, openness to tough coaching, the whole team working together, players focusing on their specific positions, and getting players around the bases to get the top score? Every workplace can benefit from these team behaviors as well. Lencioni's research proves it: Companies who prepare their leaders to overcome these 5 common workplace dysfunctions, improve the culture and see huge financial gains. Invest in your leaders today. Your bottom line will thank you! Click here to learn more about the painful cost of team dysfunction.