5 Steps to Building a Strong Team Culture

Updated October 11th, 2024

Building a strong team culture is perhaps your most important goal as a leader. Having a solidified work culture sets the foundations for a highly engaged and productive team while giving you the upper hand in providing outstanding service for your clients. In fact, research shows that 88% of employees believe a strong company culture is key to business success. So, as you can see it’s at the core of your leadership role.

But Mak, What Does it Mean to Have a Positive Team Culture?

I’m glad you asked because, what I’ve observed is that there’s a misconception of believing that having a positive team culture means it’s all rainbows and butterflies when, in reality, it’s not.

To explain this concept, let me use one of my favorite shows of all time: Friends.

In this sitcom, we have six members with completely different personalities, interests, focuses, and preferences, but they are joined by the same sentiment: being there for each other.

Just like Friends, a positive team culture is all about letting every member shine and promoting an open space for collaboration, communication, and trust while allowing them to shine as individuals and as a team. It’s a place where everyone feels valued and connected through the same goal and committed to playing their part in achieving the results.

Similarly, on your team while every team member is different, there should be a few observable dynamics such as:

• There’s an open communication and trust with one another.
• Team members support each other and celebrate their successes.
• There’s a clear path and understanding of the leadership expectations.
• The focus is all about solving problems and finding improvements.

Sounding good, right? But the big question is how to achieve it. In my experience, there are five strategies you need to follow when it comes to building a positive team culture:

1. Be purposeful with your language.
2. Build a team environment that intersects with performance and engagement.
3. Commit to leading with integrity and not being liked.
4. Actively build trust.
5. Focus on growth and development.

Let’s explore each one in detail.

1. Be Purposeful With Your Language

As a manager, you must carefully select the words to ensure they convey the messages you want to project. It’s all about using clear, impactful communication to support, guide, and correct your team. Your team culture starts with the words YOU use as the team leader.

Words carry emotion, so even if you are not speaking to your team members directly when speaking in general, you want to make sure you are using collaborative language so that it becomes the norm.

Start by asking yourself:

• Do I use words that make my people feel as though they are a resource to me, such as “staff,” “direct report,” and “under me?” or
• Do I use words reinforcing that I see them as human beings who bring expertise and uniqueness to the table?

Here are a few shifts to make in your words:

Try to use these examples as a starting point, and feel free to personalize them in your own words.

The basics of being mindful of your language are:

• Provide clear and concise communication.
• Talk in plural, i.e., we, us, our.
• Ask open-ended questions to show your team members that you value their input.
• Focus on solutions instead of problems.
• Use positive language.

Are you ready for more tips on building an awesome team culture? Watch this video and subscribe to my channel for more helpful tips on your leadership journey.

2. Build a Team Environment That Intersects With Performance and Engagement

Finding a balance between performance and engagement separates toxic from effective leaders.

When a manager solely focuses on performance, the toxic symptoms will manifest on the team in the following way:

• Overly managed, you cannot confide in anyone, and you find yourself repeating: “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
• There are lots of rules that give you power over every single team member.
• There’s a high sense of control because you must stay on top of everything to ensure it’s done.
• People are treated as resources because who has time to focus on each person’s needs, right?
• Lastly, there’s burnout in every single team member, including you.

When the focus is solely on engagement, here are the toxic symptoms that manifest on the team.

• Lack of accountability from every single person on the team.
• Mediocrity by not aiming to achieve more because we want to do the bare minimum.
• The misguided focus leads to failure to achieve goals.
• No boundaries between you and your team members. What’s even worse is not respecting your authority as a leader.
• Entitlement and loss of respect for your leader figure.

To avoid these symptoms on your team, you have to find the point that intersects between performance and engagement, which starts with developing yourself as a leader in the following areas:

• Provide clarity in expectations, goals, communication, etc.
• Communicate effectively in a way that avoids misunderstandings.
• Demand excellence and develop your team’s accountability.
• Reward and recognize in a way that lands to your team’s culture.
• Develop your team professionally and promote a safe space to look for each other. It’s all about I’ll be there for you ‘cause you’re there for me too.
• Release team members who don’t belong.

If you’re looking to up level in your leadership capacity, the best place to start is by watching my free training where I walk you through the 5 pillars of my Elevate Team Performance Framework — the roadmap for becoming an effective leader who builds high performing teams. Click here to sign up and watch it on demand for free!

3. Commit to Leading with Integrity and Not to Be Liked

When you start your new role, it’s common to fall into the trap of wanting to be liked by your team members. And I get it. We all want to feel appreciated and loved because that gives us a sense of acceptance. However, it’s not the way to build a positive team culture.

When you focus too much on pleasing people, your team loses focus on what’s important to them. So, for example, instead of achieving a specific outcome, they focus on pleasing each other.

If you feel like this area is something you need to work on, here are a couple of strategies to help you get started:

Build long-term respect instead of short-term approval. I know it’s not easy, but that’s actually the test of whether you’re doing a great job. Short-term approval would not get you far; instead, when you focus on building respect, your team trusts your decisions and gets on board with them. Make building trust a priority, even if it means someone will roll their eyes at you (believe me, you won’t be the first to experience this!).

Focus on leading according to your values and the organization’s goals rather than choosing to favor team members.

Set boundaries and hold people accountable for their actions, even if that means upsetting some of them.

Address difficult conversations face-to-face. I know managing this aspect will be tough at the beginning and, perhaps, even uncomfortable, but as you foster this habit of honesty and transparency, you will gain your team’s respect and loyalty.

Ask for help; you don’t need to do it alone. Reach out to colleagues in other departments and even your manager for their help and support as you transition to your new role.

Step 4: Actively Build Trust

Know this: gifts, games, and activities do not build trust. Consistency, honesty, and competency build your team’s trust in you.

Oftentimes, managers want to take the lazy route to trust building by hosting semi-boring (sorry, not sorry) activities and then wonder why no one on their team cares about the outcomes as much as they do. And it’s because you haven’t given them a reason yet.

As we mentioned before, it’s all about building trust. And as you can imagine, building trust doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time.

Similar to building a home, where you need all the blueprints to ensure the wires, plumbs, and appliances go in the right place, as a new manager, it is your job to build that trust one step at a time by doing the following:

• Lead authentically; remember that you are in that role for a reason. Be yourself and use that as a core principle in your management.
• Build rapport by clearly communicating your expectations.
• Trust your team members. An effective leader delegates and trusts their team’s actions and, as we’ve said before—*repeat it with me—*holds them accountable for their actions.
• Share your intentions honestly and ask for feedback to ensure full understanding.
• Become effective by inspiring, motivating, and guiding your team.

I know all of this is easier said than done, and as I’ve said before, you don’t need to do it by yourself, so join other new managers and grab a seat in my FREE class, How to Become an Effective Leader, so You Can Build a High-Performance Team, here!

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Step 5: Focus on Growth and Development

Look at it this way: being a leader that cares goes a long way. Get invested in your team’s personal and professional life, and try to understand:

• What moves them, and what’s important to them? This will allow you to find their strengths and help them blossom in the team.
• Their goals and wishes. What’s their why? Learning the motivation behind their work can help you guide them toward opportunities that will benefit them.

Of course, being this open takes time, so here’s an action plan I want you to start working on today: meet with them regularly and leave a space to chat about opportunities for learning, skill-building, and even career advancement.

It will increase your team member’s appreciation and motivation within the team.

In the end, the biggest takeaway I want you to have is this: even if you’ve made lots of mistakes as a new manager in creating a positive team culture, there’s one thing you can always do:

That’s right.

Pivoting or changing directions and taking one step at a time will get you a highly motivated and productive team.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about team culture, and remember to share this post with your colleagues!