How To Create An Irresistible Culture That Your Toxic People Will Hate

July 12, 2022

What’s impacting your campus performance more than you think?


Your culture.


Specifically, the culture you’re creating as a leader.


If you have been in your leadership seat for three years or more and are not in love with your campus culture… Look in the mirror. 


Leaders create (and allow) culture. 


In weekly table conversations, I hear campus leaders grumble about the growing number of toxic people they have who are negatively impacting their system. 

If you can relate to this reality, let me ask you a question. Is your problem the people or your system? 


Here’s the truth about systems. They are built by teams, and systems drive the overall health of your culture. 


Healthy teams build healthy systems. 


Healthy systems build irresistible culture. 


Create an irresistibly healthy culture, and your toxic people will leave.


Let your culture go flat or get toxic, and your high-capacity and healthy people will depart.


Why? 


Because:

   ➜ A healthy culture spits out toxic people.

   ➜ A toxic culture spits out healthy people.


Here’s the surprise. No one gets kicked out. They just leave when they feel they no longer belong. 


If your value of inclusion includes toxic people, I don’t think your best days are ahead. 


This truth runs more profound than you realize.


A raft of research agrees that people who leave their jobs quit their boss more than they quit their organization.


But remember that underperforming bosses create bad cultures. 


People also quit culture. 


Healthy people quit unhealthy cultures. And unhealthy people quit healthy cultures.


As a result, the overall culture you create as a leader has an awful lot to do with your organization's long-term success or failure.


You either create a campus culture in which healthy people thrive, or you experience the inevitable slide into accidental leadership that brews average teams who fall victim to average performance.


That’s just how human nature works, and great leaders must resist that gravitational pull at all costs. 


I was asked recently by a school leader what I thought the difference is between an unhealthy person and a toxic person. While there are nuances, here’s the bottom line and my response to him: 


Unhealthy people want to grow. Toxic people don’t.


Your organization should always have room for unhealthy people on the road to recovery. You must contain them, care for them, and challenge them to become healthy. 


Toxic people who resist all efforts to help are a whole other thing. And as Henry Cloud argues, you don’t need to keep them around, unless you want them to destroy everything.


So, what do you do about all this?


If you want to create a stellar organizational culture that attracts and keeps healthy people, here are four keys:


1. Focus on Your Personal Health


I have been a senior leader for nearly three decades. As much as I don’t want to admit it, it’s still true: During those 28 years leading within the system, my organization was only as healthy as I was.


Full stop. 


Ditto for you. Fight it all you want, but your organization will only be as healthy as you are as the leader. 


Don’t be offended, but if your system is not healthy… Tag you are it. 


Even if you’re not the senior leader, that’s true of the team you lead, the department you run, or the crew you manage. The health of the leader tends to be the health of the team.

I think of the health of a leader in five categories:


✅ Spiritual

✅ Emotional

✅ Relational

✅ Physical

✅ Financial


While health in each category is nuanced, one thing is true: health in each category means margin.


A healthy leader has a spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical tank that is more full than empty. They have the benefit of not being exhausted all the time, not constantly irritable, or not so over-consumed with the needs of others. 


This is the gift of margin. 


You may wonder what being financially healthy looks like. It’s simple: Living within your means and using the leftovers for the benefit of others. 


I know leaders who make $40,000 a year who have a bit of money in the bank and leaders who make $140,000 who are always strapped and out of money. When your financial situation causes stress, that toxin leaks out all over the place.


Healthy leaders tend to lead healthy organizations because they have the reserves to help others get healthy and have a lower tolerance for toxicity.


Finally, healthy people are attracted to healthy leaders.


That👆🏼might be the solution to your talent recruitment challenge. 


2. Invest in People, Not Just Results


I’m naturally a results person.


But I’ve also come to realize this: Results-driven leaders focus on what they can get FROM their team. Healthy leaders obsess over what they can do FOR their team.


Strangely, if all you think about is what you can get from your team, you always end up with diminishing returns. People feel used and eventually lose heart, start going through the motions, and become underperformers. 


But if you focus on what you can do FOR your team, people lean in and give you much more than you imagined.


The longer I guide and coach others, the more I realize that if you have competent people, the best thing you can do is care about the team as humans.


I’ve observed a few practical strategies that help immensely that you can start today:


➜ Ask team members HOW they’re doing, not just WHAT they’re doing. People want to know that you care.

➜ Invest in your leader’s growth and development.

➜ Do off-sites together. Invest in team retreats, conferences, events, and seminars.

➜ Invest in courses, books, and resources that grow your people and their skill sets.

➜ Invest in personal coaching and consulting support for your leaders and divisional teams.

➜ Give your leaders what they need to do their job well. Everything from slow computers and lousy WiFi to a crappy work environment demotivates people and creates unnecessary barriers. 


Cheap is always more expensive in the long run, right?


Bottom line? Create the kind of environment where the people working for you become better PEOPLE, not just employees. Grow THEM, not just their skills.


When your team grows personally, your progress grows exponentially.


RECLAIM IT!

As we move into the midpoint of summer, you can almost hear that collective “what-the…” from campus leaders across the country. 


“Isn’t July supposed to be when things slow up?”


Most feel that. 


The challenges left in the wake of these past two years have many leaders taking extended leave, and others left to do most of the work. 


The question is, “is it sustainable?”


I know how much this summer break is needed, and I trust that your calendar has some dates marked off for you to truly get away. 


But don’t be fooled. 


I’m here to remind you that many of those same problems and issues will await you and your team when you return in the fall.   


Leaders hate when I say this (while they shake their heads in agreement), but managing crisis was challenging but leading OUT of crisis will be much more complex and demanding. 


Healthy leaders and teams will be in high demand to build (not rebuild) the plans and strategies to navigate the unchartered territory ahead. 


You need to take action and Reclaim Your Momentum!


You may be one of the hundreds who requested and downloaded my free guide on reclaiming your momentum in the past few weeks and months. The feedback I’ve received from so many of you continues to be overwhelming. 


Because of that, I’m going on tour. 


I’ve turned this essential topic into a 2-hour LIVE keynote that I’m delivering to campus leadership teams across the county this summer and fall. 


If you’re like most campus leaders, you’ve spent countless hours these past years putting out fires, dealing with negativity, drama, and just plain old burnout across the board. 


And, like so many others, you’re fed up with feeling stuck. 


It’s time to take action.


For a limited time, I’m offering an Early Bird Discount for campuses that book our new 2-hour live keynote before July 30th! 


Click here for the details.


What are you waiting for?


It would be an honor to be your guide and help you and your team regain lost ground and Reclaim Your Momentum.


Joe


Dr. Joe Hill 

Founder, Higher Performance Group


P.S. Be sure to share this article with a team member or fellow leaders across your network who could use a nudge of inspiration and challenge. Together we can help raise the waterline of hope, stability, trust, and compassion for those doing the most good across our learning communities. 


Click here to learn more.





See What Reclaim Your Momentum {LIVE} is All About

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Higher Performance Insights | ONE BAD APPLE

By HPG Info • July 8, 2025
How a single leader can sink your team (and how one good one can save it) Last month, a superintendent I work with shared what happened during her presentation of the strategic plan to the board. Twenty years of experience, proven results, polished presentation, and promising data. Halfway through, one executive team member sat back, arms crossed, occasionally checking his phone. A board member started shuffling papers. By the end, three others had adopted the same disengaged body language. What should have been an energizing strategic discussion devolved into polite nods and no real commitment. That same week, a university president I consult with described identical dynamics in her executive team meeting. Different building, same pattern: one person's negativity was infecting the entire senior leadership. This painful parallel revealed a leadership truth that research confirms: one person can significantly impact your team's performance by as much as 30-40%. 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They're unconsciously mirroring the energy around them—what neuroscientists call "emotional contagion." Where One Leader Changes Everything However, one group in Phelps' study remained energetic and produced excellent results despite the presence of the bad apple. The difference wasn't intelligence, experience, or positional authority. It was one person who understood what MIT's Human Dynamics Lab calls "belonging cues"—micro-signals that create a sense of psychological safety. This leader didn't take charge or give motivational speeches. Instead, he did something much simpler: When resistance emerged during budget discussions, he leaned forward, made eye contact, and responded with genuine curiosity. Not fake positivity, but authentic interest that "took the danger out of the room." Then came the pivot: "That's an interesting concern—what would you suggest we do differently?" Result? Even the resistant member, almost against his will, found himself contributing constructively. 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Your leadership team dynamics are literally working for or against your mission. The Executive Infection Gap: When Smart Leaders Create Stupid Results Every negative interaction in your cabinet costs you: Faculty who disengage because they sense leadership division Students who suffer when initiatives fail due to leadership dysfunction Community members who lose confidence witnessing leadership conflicts The research is concerning: 30 seconds—that's how long it takes for negative energy to spread in executive meetings If one senior leader checks out, others follow unconsciously When leadership teams can't create safety, organizational initiatives die Allowing negativity to spread among your senior team affects every student you serve. From Infection to Connection: The Framework That Works ❌ The Typical Approach (Actually Destructive): Hope the resistant leader comes around Cabinet meeting scenario: Your executive team member constantly questions every initiative, rolls their eyes during presentations, and makes dismissive comments. You address it privately, but nothing changes. Other team members start to disengage. Result: Strategic planning stalls. Good initiatives die. High-performing leaders start looking elsewhere. ✅ The Breakthrough Approach (Game-Changing): Respond to resistance with curiosity and inclusion Same scenario, different response: When the executive team member questions an initiative, you lean forward and say, "You're raising important concerns—help us think through what success would look like from your perspective." Then pivot: "What do the rest of you think about these points?" Result : The resistant leader feels heard instead of dismissed. The team stays engaged. 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Higher Performance Insights | WHEN SMART LEADERS SOUND STUPID

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"I would not give a fig for the simplicity that exists on this side of complexity; but I would give my life for the simplicity that exists on the far side of complexity." —Oliver Wendell Holmes The most brilliant leaders consistently choose clarity over complexity. They've done the hard work of mastering complexity so they can deliver simplicity. They've wrestled with the big ideas so they can explain them in small words. They've earned the right to speak like a human being instead of a textbook. Because smart words are simple words. Simple words scale. Scalable words create sustainable impact. And sustainable impact is what brilliant leadership actually looks like. Ready to Lead with True Intelligence?  Stop hiding your brilliance behind big words. Start communicating with the clarity that creates change.
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