Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, a firm specializing in activating workplaces.

We find your blind spots and opportunities and build you the custom blueprint to get your teams delivering their best work, efficiently, collaboratively with full engagement.

Today, I'm going to be answering a listener question. And remember, you too can leave me a voicemail with your engagement. Today, I'm going to be answering a listener question. And remember,

you too can leave me a voicemail with your questions at 201-67-8113. And I can't wait to hear what's

on your mind. Okay, so here's the question, and I'm paraphrasing. But this listener says,

I'm curious how, as a new leader,

someone might go about changing a toxic workplace culture. A leader should have some ability to do that,

and I'm interested in strategies or methods for making real change. It's an excellent question.

And listener, if you are listening now, just know that you're not alone, not even close.

A lot of people are struggling these days. And yeah, leaders absolutely should be in a position to

create change. So let's talk about some strategies you can start to implement right away.

First, find your toxic. The thing about most workplaces is there's a lot not to love. From the

vaguely irritating, like the office is always 12 degrees too hot or too cold, to the annoyingly

obstructive, like it takes 17 rounds of interviews to just get a new person hired, to the truly

toxic, like I just asked a

question in a meeting and that leader screamed at me for not listening well. There's often a

spectrum of things that aren't our favorites, but sometimes the irritating and even obstructive

things have a purpose, like the office thermostat may be set based on environmental guidelines.

And that hiring process, it may be long because some bad hires have come through and the

company's trying to fix it. But a toxic workplace, that is defined by the truly inexcusable.

And this distinction is important because if the things that we're struggling with are more

irritating than toxic, then we might need to focus on building tolerance or finding new

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