Bad company culture doesn’t show up overnight. It creeps in, takes root, and — before you even realize it — your once-thriving team is unmotivated, disengaged, and just going through the motions.
Leaders call The Metiss Group about workplace culture problems all the time. They notice the symptoms: team members watching the clock, lacking initiative, or worse, superstars leaving while mediocre performers stick around. But bad culture isn’t the problem, it’s a symptom.
So, what’s the fix? Here’s how to turn things around:
Step 1: Identify the Signs of a Toxic Work Culture
Step 2: Remove the People Who Don’t Fit
Step 3: Evaluate Your Leadership Team
Step 4: Define Core Values and Reinforce Them Daily
Step 5: Hire People Who Align with Your Culture
Step 6: Use Assessments and Workshops to Strengthen Your Team
Step 1: Identify the Signs of a Toxic Work Culture
Most leaders can’t quite put their finger on what’s wrong with their culture. They just know it doesn’t feel right. And by the time you feel it, the problem has already been spreading like cancer.
Here are some red flags:
- The “last in, first out” mentality: Employees do the bare minimum and bolt at 5 p.m. sharp.
- High turnover, but only of the good people: The real talent leaves, while disengaged underperformers stick around.
- A sense of entitlement: Raises are expected, but performance isn’t improving.
- Zero initiative or innovation: You hear, “Just tell me what you want me to do.” No one is thinking ahead or taking ownership.
- Negativity spreads like wildfire: A few disgruntled employees pull the whole team down.
Remember this: culture won’t fix itself. If you ignore it, you’re sending an unspoken message: This is fine. And when negativity is tolerated, it multiplies.
Step 2: Remove the People Who Don’t Fit
Culture isn’t about perks or team-building exercises. It’s about people. And sometimes, the wrong people are poisoning your workplace.
One of the toughest decisions a leader can make is letting go of a high performer who isn’t a good culture fit. It’s uncomfortable, but it often sends the clearest message: Results alone aren’t enough.
When someone delivers great work but drags the team down, the cost is greater than their contributions. Over time, good employees disengage — or leave entirely — because the environment becomes too draining.
It’s not about making an example of anyone. It’s about protecting the kind of workplace you want to build.
And if you’ve got multiple bad fits? You might need to make more than one tough call. Trying to “develop” employees who don’t align with your culture is a waste of time and money. Some people just aren’t the right fit, and that’s okay. Keeping them is a leadership failure.
Step 3: Evaluate Your Leadership Team
Ever heard the phrase the fish stinks from the head? Culture problems usually start with leadership. That doesn’t just mean department heads or mid-level managers. It means you, too. The CEO, the founder, the person calling the shots.
Sometimes the uncomfortable truth is: you might be part of the problem. Not because you’re trying to be, but because culture flows from the top. If you're disengaged, reactive, avoiding conflict, or letting misaligned behavior slide, your team sees it.
After looking at yourself, also consider the rest of your leadership team. Some leaders don’t actually know how to lead, while others simply don’t want to lead. And if leadership isn’t setting the tone, no amount of hiring or firing will fix your culture.
For leaders who struggle with delegation, accountability, or engagement, The Leadership Essentials Playbook™ provides the fundamentals they need. We’ve seen team members reignite their passion once their leader starts properly delegating and developing them.
However, if leadership isn’t motivated to lead, the entire organization will feel it. Employees can sense disengagement from the top, and when they do, they stop caring too.
Step 4: Define Core Values and Reinforce Them Daily
Your culture isn’t what’s written on the walls. It’s what’s tolerated. If you don’t define and reinforce your core values, employees will make up their own rules.
Some companies try to compensate for a lack of real culture with excessive policies. One client of ours had a three-inch-thick employee handbook with rules about everything from microwave etiquette to parking. Yet one of their core values was “Be Considerate of Others.” If that value had been lived, they wouldn’t have needed all those rules.
Ask yourself:
- Can you name your company’s core values without looking at a document?
- Do employees actually live those values, or are they just corporate jargon?
- Are you hiring people who reflect those values from day one?
If you’re struggling to answer these, it’s time to go back to the basics.
Step 5: Hire People Who Align with Your Culture
Many companies went on hiring sprees after the pandemic. Now, they’re dealing with the aftermath: too many people who don’t fit their culture.
Most leaders focus too much on skills and experience when hiring. But culture fit matters just as much, if not more. The Hiring Process Coach™ helps companies get this right by screening for core values before an interview even happens.
Here’s why that matters:
A high-intensity, cutthroat firm can thrive if it hires competitive, driven people. Meanwhile, a nurturing, collaborative company will fall apart if even one hyper-competitive person joins the team.
The key? Define your core values and hire against them. At The Metiss Group, we screen for core values in the earliest hiring stages. We don’t ask hypotheticals. We ask candidates to describe specific times they’ve lived out our core values in the workplace.
If they struggle to think of an example or fall back on generic responses, they aren’t a good fit. Culture isn’t something you instill after hiring. It starts with who you let in the door.
Step 6: Use Assessments and Workshops to Strengthen Your Team
Once you’ve done the steps above, tools like LEA 360 Culture from Management Research Group can help you further evaluate your culture. Unlike generic HR surveys (which employees often don’t trust), this provides real, honest feedback. The Metiss Group can administer this assessment for your team.
For teams with new leadership or structural changes, The Team Synergy Experience™ Workshop can be valuable. But if your culture is already in trouble, a workshop won’t be a magic fix. You have to address the root cause first.
The Bottom Line
Bad company culture doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s the result of leadership decisions—or lack thereof. The good news? You have the power to fix it.
Start by making the right hires, reinforcing your core values, and leading by example. And if you have toxic employees dragging your team down, don’t wait. Make the tough calls.
Here at The Metiss Group, we help our clients build and sustain thriving cultures by evaluating their hiring process, leadership development, and team synergy. Kevin Parikh at Lakeshore Toltest said it best:
"Over the more than five years we’ve worked with The Metiss Group, we’ve seen extraordinary results — not only in the quality of our employees but in our processes, policies, and overall success."
Now that you know how to fix a bad company culture, the next step is understanding who doesn’t make a good fit for leadership development. The truth is, not everyone is cut out for leadership, and understanding this will help you develop the right people and build a thriving culture.
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