Part Two: Four Types of Toxicity That Could Be Lurking Among Your Team

In part two of this two-part post, we’ll look at two more types of toxicity that could be derailing your team.

Toxicity is a fancy word for anything that is pervasive and harmful to oneself or a group of people. Toxicity comes in all shapes and sizes, which can make it extremely hard to detect. Below, we’ll explore two additional forms.

Complacency

Complacent is one of those English words that has a couple different meanings depending on how you use it in a sentence. For example, it could refer to someone being smug, prideful, gloating: "Success brings with it the danger of complacency." Whereas, on the other hand it can refer to one becoming careless, content, or lazy: "You've become so complacent these days, it's like nothing matters to you."

Neither forms are productive when it comes to a team working together to accomplish a common goal and to produce better outcomes for an organization. The former refers to what could happen when we feel like we've reached the top; we have nowhere else to go and nothing left to achieve. The latter refers to what could happen when we become comfortable with status quo; when we feel as though the work or the relationship doesn't matter enough to strive for improvement and growth. I believe both forms of complacency stem from fear. The fear of failure or rejection, fear of inadequacy, fear of not knowing where to start and what the future could hold.

Complacency is a state of mind; it is a psychological wall that impacts our demeanor regarding every area of life.

As a leader, one way to help prevent complacency among your team is to create psychological safety. First, this refers to creating an environment or culture of trust in which members of your team have the ability to talk about their life and work openly with you. Secondly, and equally important, is that they receive encouragement from you to talk with a counselor; someone who can help them process the root cause of their complacency and help them take the next best steps to overcome it.

Contriving

To contrive means to create or to bring about something. In the case of toxicity among your team, I'm referring to the act of making up of a story in one's mind about someone or a certain situation without having all the facts. This is something that we're all guilty of on a daily basis, numerous times in a day.

We often resort to this kind of behavior because it's easier to just make up a story about what we think is going on than it is to walk over to someone and say, "Hey, I want to make sure I'm not creating an incorrect story in my mind about XYZ, but I wanted to let you know that this is how this seems ..."

Some find it far more easier to just assume the worst than to actually gain the understanding about something they're facing. This happens when people lack trust or respect between one another. However, if two people have built a relationship of trust and respect then they won't shy away from these sorts of conversations because they're not afraid of the response that awaits them on the other side of the table or phone. On the other hand, if two people are lacking in their relationship, these kinds of conversations can feel like dangerous waters.

• Toxicity happens when people complain rather than process (Read part one to learn more)

• Toxicity happens when unchecked competition turns into rivalry. (Read part one to learn more)

• Toxicity happens when complacency prevents forward motion.

• Toxicity happens when the contriving of untrue stories becomes easier to handle than gaining a true understanding as to what is going on.

So how do you think your team is doing? Do you think these two types of toxicity are lurking among your team? In part-one of this post, we explored two other common forms of toxicity, so be sure to read part one if you haven’t already.

And if you believe the four types of toxicity that we’ve covered in the last two posts are lurking among your team, you must know that if they are not dealt with in the correct way, they will create an unhealthy team culture.

Here’s another question for you: How would you define your team culture right now? Is it thriving, average, or unhealthy?

Our free online assessment can help you with an initial evaluation toward discovering where your team culture is now, compared to where you desire it to be.

Cheering you on!
-Nicole Lucas

If you’d like more help in this area, I’m here for you! Contact me to get started with a free 30-minute call.