Creating a Positive Culture Within Your Circle of Influence

In traditional top-down organizations, mid-level managers can feel powerless to create an engaging work environment, particularly when executive leadership is stuck in command-and-control thinking. A toxic culture can easily fester. New, talented employees quickly read the writing on the wall and move on to greener pastures. This puts additional pressure on middle management to motivate and retain staff while towing the company line – a difficult and potentially demoralizing tightrope to walk.

One of the most powerful concepts I learned early in my career was the notion of the Circle of Influence vs. the Circle of Concern, popularized by Stephen Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We can list all the things we are upset about within the Circle of Concern. Within that circle is a smaller circle encompassing the things we can act upon – our Circle of Influence. Ruminating on the Circle of Concern leads to helplessness and hopelessness. Instead, focusing on the Circle of Influence – those actions we CAN take – leads to an ever-expanding Circle of Influence and ironically, reduces the relative size of the Circle of Concern.

Going back to our challenge, then: As a mid-level manager in a traditional, hierarchical organization that feels toxic, what can you do within your Circle of Influence to create a positive culture – at least at your level and below? Some ideas to consider:

• Personally connect. How are you connecting with each of your team members on a regular basis? Do your 1:1s include just a run-through of project status, or do you take the time to connect personally and understand what energizes each person?

• Foster discovery of purpose. How might you help your team members identify their greater “why” and connect their purpose with the organization’s mission? Do team members understand how their roles support the larger organization’s goals?

• Clarify roles and objectives then empower your team to achieve them. How clear are team members’ roles and objectives? How might you give team members even more freedom in how they achieve those objectives while still holding them accountable?

• Support career growth. How well do you understand each team member’s career goals? Is there a clear path for growth within the organization? How might you help them by connecting them with potential mentors or sponsors?

• Role model the change you would like to see. This might include communicating with transparency, being willing to be vulnerable, admitting when you don’t know the answer, holding regular roundtables and listening sessions with skip-level team members, and being open to trying new solutions that come from your team. When was the last time you asked for specific feedback on your leadership?

• Capitalize on teachable moments. Related to role modeling, how might you teach these positive leadership principles to others? What’s a creative way to engage the leaders on your team to grow their leadership capabilities?

• Share wins with your boss to help energize upwards. Look for ways to connect the dots between the positive practices you’ve implemented and key business outcomes your team has achieved. How do your positive change initiatives support upper management’s strategic direction? Find ways to measure your efforts and prove their value with empirical data.

• Be mindful of the positivity ratio. The positivity ratio – the idea of striving for a positive to negative interaction ratio of at least 3 to 1 or ideally 5 to 1 or more to create a net-positive culture – is a useful concept to hold us accountable to creating energizing relationships. How can you build positive exchanges into your everyday interactions? These don’t all have to be kudos, they can also include simple greetings, acknowledgments, and expressions of interest.

• Factor in fun. Speaking of positivity, how are you building “fun” into your team’s culture, or empowering others to do so?

• Put your own oxygen mask on first. Bearing the brunt of non-supportive upper management can be incredibly draining. What are you doing to practice self-care? How can you lean on your high-quality connections to fill your own cup? Is there a way to let direct reports know that getting positive feedback from them really matters?

This list may feel overwhelming, but you don’t need to do it all at once. Even committing to a few of these actions will create a work environment that talented people will want to be a part of. Your efforts will create a bright spot in the organization that others, including executive leadership, may be motivated to emulate, thus expanding your Circle of Influence beyond what you could have imagined.