How do you stop toxicity from contaminating your culture?

For example, I remember someone who never gave any authority to others. They tried to make all the decisions, and if the choice was someone else’s they wouldn’t accept it. Others ended up feeling like they couldn’t contribute, or that everything they suggested was wrong. After a while, people stopped proposing alternative ideas altogether.

I discovered the problem by being really proactive about gathering feedback when I joined the company, both through surveys and direct conversations. I talked with a lot of people early on to see if they’d open up. The goal was to create a trust-based environment where people could share concerns whenever they have them—and they did.

Once feedback about a specific person was repeating, that confirmed it.

I also have an example of a manager that didn’t value their team. Managers can impact a very broad spectrum of people around them, so that was really toxic and demotivating for the whole team.

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Which steps should HR people take once they’ve identified toxicity?

There’s no one-size-fits-all-solution. First I spend time gathering as much feedback as possible and making sure I understand it. Not just from one person, but a range of perspectives across the team. Sometimes one perspective can be very subjective.

Then it’s about making sure this feedback gets to the right person—but also in the right way. In some situations, it's possible to ask their colleagues to talk to them directly. If there’s still some kind of trust or relationship, I always see if there’s an option to start a direct conversation. The more direct feedback, the better.

But sometimes it gets to a point where that’s not an option. That’s when HR or a manager needs to collect the feedback and bring it to this person. In these cases, it's really important to emphasise that the cultural aspects of their role are just as important as their performance, skills, and knowledge.

I’ve learned that in more technical teams, team members can feel like strong coding and analysis is enough. But how you behave is equally important—and we need to transmit that as managers. It’s a hard job to give that feedback in a way that gives clarity on what they can do better, and also on how they’re affecting their team.

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Can consistent feedback and coaching change someone’s behaviour?

It can sometimes. In the case I was talking about before, the person wasn’t really aware of the impact their behaviour was having on others.

Just having that feedback collected and delivered in the right way improved the team dynamic.

It also started a conversation about their role in general and the responsibilities it includes towards other people in the team. In some cases, toxicity can come from a lack of clear job descriptions or expectations around what we expect from people—both in terms of their work, and their behaviour. Someone might not realise they’re being toxic.

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How can companies prevent toxic behaviour in the first place? 

It's important to have HR involved in the hiring process. Sometimes companies don't involve HR enough. But People teams can really help make the interviews organised and consistent for each candidate—not forgetting the cultural and behavioural aspects. 

If you leave hiring entirely to each team, they’ll often focus more on the job itself and less on culture.

It's also super important to have internal job descriptions—not just the ones you post on the web—with well-defined roles, responsibilities, and expectations when a person joins the company. 

You can then review these every few months, or every half a year. People’s roles will naturally evolve over time, or when new people join the team. In fast-growing startups it’s extra important to keep track of this so people have clarity. A year after someone joins, it might feel like a completely different company.