Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and GOLA GV.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six point thirty six. Today we're talking about
Speaker 2: eliminating the culture killers. Every organization has them. Some are loud,
Speaker 2: some are quiet, Some sit in meetings, some sit in corners,
Speaker 2: and some sit in leadership chairs. Culture killers are not
Speaker 2: always dramatic. They do not always throw chairs or scream
Speaker 2: in hallways. Many times they smile, they nod, they show
Speaker 2: up on time, and they slowly rot your culture from
Speaker 2: the inside. Let me tell you something from nearly three
Speaker 2: decades in emergency services. You can survive a bad call.
Speaker 2: You can survive budget cuts, you can survive staffing shortages.
Speaker 2: What you will not survive long term is a culture
Speaker 2: that allows poison to sit unchallenged. Culture is shaped by
Speaker 2: what you tolerate, not what you preach. You can hang posters,
Speaker 2: you can create mission statements, You can hold retreats and
Speaker 2: say the right words. If you allow culture killers to
Speaker 2: operate freely, your team will believe your tolerance more than
Speaker 2: your speeches. So let's break down what these culture killers
Speaker 2: actually look like. The first one is the professional victim.
Speaker 2: This is the person who is always mistreated, always overlooked,
Speaker 2: always the hardest worker in the room, at least in
Speaker 2: their own mind. They weaponize sympathy. They turn accountability into persecution,
Speaker 2: and if you allow that behavior to spread, your performers
Speaker 2: start wondering why standards only apply to some people. The
Speaker 2: second culture killer is passive leadership. This one is dangerous
Speaker 2: because it usually sits in a supervisor seat. They avoid
Speaker 2: hard conversations, They delay decisions, They hope problems fix themselves.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to say it again for the ten
Speaker 2: thousandth time on this show. In aviation, when your one
Speaker 2: degree off course, you will not notice it immediately, but
Speaker 2: stay one degree off long enough, and you end up
Speaker 2: hundreds of miles from where you plan to land. Passive
Speaker 2: leadership is that one degree. No turbulence at first, no
Speaker 2: flashing lights, and then suddenly your culture feels off. Standards slip,
Speaker 2: accountability softens, and nobody can explain exactly when it started
Speaker 2: guarded when you avoided that one conversation. The third culture
Speaker 2: killer is the silent underminer. They do not challenge you
Speaker 2: in the meeting, They challenge you in the parking lot.
Speaker 2: They agree publicly, they disagree privately. This person corrodes trust
Speaker 2: faster than open conflict ever could. In ems. In every
Speaker 2: organization I've led, I've learned something the hard way. If
Speaker 2: you do not confront quiet sabotage early, it multiplies, It
Speaker 2: spreads in whispers, It infects new employees before they have
Speaker 2: a chance to form their own opinions. Culture killers love ambiguity.
Speaker 2: They thrive in gray areas where standards are unclear. That
Speaker 2: is why clarity is your weapon. Now Here is where
Speaker 2: red key leadership shows up. Red Key moments are high
Speaker 2: consequence moments. They define credibility, They demand ownership. Eliminating a
Speaker 2: culture killer is almost always a red key decision. It
Speaker 2: is uncomfortable, It may cost you politically, it may make
Speaker 2: you unpopular for a season. But leadership is not a
Speaker 2: popularity contest. It is a credibility contest. You do not
Speaker 2: build trust by protecting dysfunction. You build trust by protecting standards.
Speaker 2: So let me give you something tactical. If you want
Speaker 2: to eliminate culture killers, you need to do four things
Speaker 2: First name the behavior clearly, not the person, not the behavior. Second,
Speaker 2: document patterns not feelings. High performing leaders operate on evidence,
Speaker 2: not emotion. Third, confront directly and privately, no theatrics, no humiliation, Calm,
Speaker 2: firm and clear in Fourth, set a line in the sand,
Speaker 2: not a suggestion, not a hope, a standard. And here's
Speaker 2: the part leaders struggle with. If behavior does not change,
Speaker 2: consequences must follow. Otherwise you've taught your entire organization that
Speaker 2: your standards are optional. In scuba diving, I think about
Speaker 2: when you descend under water, pressure increases steadily. If you
Speaker 2: ignore small equipment issues early, they become catastrophic at depth.
Speaker 2: Culture works the same way. Small tolerated issues at surface
Speaker 2: level become massive failures under stress. You will not notice
Speaker 2: weak culture on easy days. You will notice it during crisis,
Speaker 2: when the storm hits, when revenue drops, when a mistake
Speaker 2: makes the news. Strong culture titans ranks. Weak culture fractures them.
Speaker 2: The difference was built months or years earlier, when you
Speaker 2: either eliminated culture killers or allowed them to sit comfortably.
Speaker 2: Now I want to challenge you personally. Are you unknowingly
Speaker 2: protecting a culture killer because it's easier than addressing it.
Speaker 2: Are you keeping someone because they are technically strong, even
Speaker 2: though they erode morale? Are you avoiding a red key
Speaker 2: conversation because you fear conflict. Your team is watching. They
Speaker 2: always know more than you think. The fastest way to
Speaker 2: lose credibility is to preach standards that you do not enforce.
Speaker 2: The fastest way to build credibility is to calmly, consistently
Speaker 2: eliminate behaviors that damage your mission. Leadership is not about perfection,
Speaker 2: it's about protection. You are the protector of your culture
Speaker 2: and culture killers do not remove them. So if this
Speaker 2: episode hit home for you, here is your assignment. Within
Speaker 2: the next seven minutes. Identify one behavior in your organization
Speaker 2: that is a road in culture, not a personality. Conflict
Speaker 2: a behavior and decide whether you are tolerating it or
Speaker 2: addressing it. Leadership is built in moments. Culture is protected
Speaker 2: in moments. Choose to be the leader who protects what matters.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.