Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goala giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Felloaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighty three. Culture is one of those
Speaker 2: leadership topics that everyone talks about, yet very few people
Speaker 2: can explain how to fix it when it starts falling apart.
Speaker 2: Most leaders know how to build something new. They know
Speaker 2: how to launch a new initiative, announce a new vision, statement,
Speaker 2: print new posters, create a committee, or even bring in
Speaker 2: a motivational speaker. Culture recovery doesn't work that way. If
Speaker 2: your culture has been damaged, your employees aren't way waiting
Speaker 2: for another speech. They're watching for evidence. They're looking for
Speaker 2: proof that something has actually changed. So today I want
Speaker 2: to give you a practical culture recovery playbook, because every
Speaker 2: organization will eventually need one. Culture rarely collapses overnight. It
Speaker 2: erodes one conversation, one ignored problem, one broken promise, and
Speaker 2: one tolerated behavior at a time. Think about organizations you've
Speaker 2: worked in. The breakroom gets quieter, the laughter disappears, people
Speaker 2: stop volunteering ideas. Meetings become shorter because nobody wants to contribute.
Speaker 2: Employees stop asking questions because they've learned the answers won't
Speaker 2: matter anyway. People start doing exactly what they're told, and
Speaker 2: then nothing beyond that. That's not laziness, that's emotional withdrawal.
Speaker 2: And once that happens, leaders often panic. They start rolling
Speaker 2: out surveys, they hire consultants, they create culture committees, they
Speaker 2: redesign the logo, they hand out coffee mugs with inspirational slogans. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: the real problem never gets addressed. The first step in
Speaker 2: recovering culture is admitting is admitting reality, not the version
Speaker 2: leadership wants to believe, the version employees experience every day.
Speaker 2: Ask yourself some uncomfortable questions. What behaviors have we tolerated?
Speaker 2: Where have we become inconsistent? What promises did we make
Speaker 2: that quietly disappeared? What frustrations do employees talk about? When
Speaker 2: leadership isn't around culture? Recovery begins with honesty. The second
Speaker 2: step is identifying your culture debt. Just like financial debt,
Speaker 2: culture debt eumulates interest, every ignored complaint, every poor hiring decision,
Speaker 2: every toxic employee that stayed too long, every leader who
Speaker 2: wasn't held accountable, every shortcut. Eventually those unpaid bills come due.
Speaker 2: Many organizations don't have a culture problem. They have years
Speaker 2: of unpaid culture debt. The third step is fixing the obvious. First,
Speaker 2: leaders love complicated projects. Employees love simple improvements. Fix the
Speaker 2: broken coffee machine, replace outdated equipment, respond to emails, improve scheduling,
Speaker 2: repair the things employees complain about every single day. When
Speaker 2: leaders ignore obvious problems while talking about transformation, credibility disappears.
Speaker 2: Momentum begins with visible wins. The fourth step is consistency.
Speaker 2: Nothing destroys recovery faster than inconsistency. One employee gets held accountable,
Speaker 2: another gets a free pass. One department follows policy, another
Speaker 2: ignores it. One leader models professionalism, another creates drama. Employees
Speaker 2: notice every inconsistency. Culture doesn't recover because of one great decision.
Speaker 2: It recovers because hundreds of ordinary decisions begin looking the same.
Speaker 2: The fifth step is rebuilding trust. Trust isn't restored during
Speaker 2: an annual meeting. It's rebuilt one interaction at a time.
Speaker 2: Do what you said you were going to do, return
Speaker 2: phone calls, follow through, admit mistakes, be visible, answer difficult questions.
Speaker 2: When leaders consistently keep small promises, employees slowly begin believing
Speaker 2: law larger promises again. The sixth step is removing culture wreckers.
Speaker 2: This is where many leaders struggle. Every organization has people
Speaker 2: who drain energy from everyone around them. Some complain constantly,
Speaker 2: some spread gossip, some resist every improvement. Others simply refuse
Speaker 2: to care. One toxic employee can undo months of leadership work.
Speaker 2: Protecting the team sometimes means making difficult personnel decisions. Leadership
Speaker 2: is not about keeping everyone happy. Leadership is about protecting
Speaker 2: the environment where good employees can thrive. The seventh step
Speaker 2: is celebrating progress without pretending you've arrived. Recovery isn't perfection.
Speaker 2: Its movement. When employees begin helping each other again, Recognize
Speaker 2: it when departments collaborate, rate better, Celebrate it. When someone
Speaker 2: demonstrates ownership, talk about it. Celebrate behaviors, not slogans. Culture
Speaker 2: grows where attention goes. And here's something I've learned after
Speaker 2: years of leading ems teams. You can't order culture, you
Speaker 2: can't mandate trust, you can't write teamwork into policy. Culture
Speaker 2: is simply the collection of daily experiences your employees have
Speaker 2: while working for you. That's it. If people leave work
Speaker 2: feeling respected, supported, challenged, and valued, your culture improves. If
Speaker 2: they leave exhausted because of unnecessary drama, inconsistent leadership, and
Speaker 2: preventable frustration, your culture declines. One experience at a time,
Speaker 2: one shift at a time, and one decision at a time.
Speaker 2: So here's your challenge this week. Walk through your organization
Speaker 2: with fresh eyes. Pretend you're a brand new employee. What
Speaker 2: would you notice, what would frustrate you, what would impress you,
Speaker 2: what would convince you to stay, and what would make
Speaker 2: you quietly start looking for another job. That exercise alone
Speaker 2: may reveal the first chapter of your culture recovery playbook.
Speaker 2: And I want you to remember this. Healthy cultures aren't
Speaker 2: built because leaders have better mission statements. They're built because
Speaker 2: leaders create better experiences. And every experience is another opportunity
Speaker 2: to move your culture one step closer to where it
Speaker 2: deserves to be. Culture recovery isn't about getting back to
Speaker 2: where you used to be. It's about becoming the organization
Speaker 2: people are proud to be part of. Today. Your employees
Speaker 2: are watching every decision you make in every one of
Speaker 2: them those decisions is writing the next chapter of your culture.
Speaker 2: Make it a chapter worth following. And if you want
Speaker 2: more free leadership resources, head over to Paulflovalito dot com
Speaker 2: and click on free Stuff. I have over twenty five
Speaker 2: free leadership documents you can download and start using today.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit Paulfellowalito dot com