10 ways to kill your culture (or make sure it's terrible from the beginning)

1) Break Promises - In business, trust is lubricant. Without it, everything is more difficult than it needs to be and the simplest tasks grind on everyone involved. If you don't follow through on promises, no matter how small, trust is eroded.

2) Promote Undeserving People - As a leader, everything you do sends a message. If you promote & reward people who are either bad at their job, or seemingly good at their job but have achieved using nefarious means, your good people will leave and your bad people will get worse.

3) Incentivize Cutthroat Behavior - This rarely happens on purpose, but consider the downstream effects of your incentives. i.e. If Sales is paid on gross and not net, they're being paid to penalize the retention team. Don't inadvertently pit your employees against each other.

4) Bog Down Performers with Process - A key role of leadership is removing blockers for your high performers. High performers tend to love what they do. If it's perceived that you're making what they love to do less fun or productive, or taking time away from it, they will leave.

5) Dismiss Constructive Feedback - To your face, in a survey, thru the grapevine, whatever. Yes there will be one-off squeaky wheels, but these aside, you need to address feedback, even (and especially) if it's off base. Perception is reality.

You might disagree with feedback someone gives you. And their perspective may not reflect reality. But here's the thing: their perspective *is* their reality. So instead of deciding "they're wrong, there's nothing I can do," what can you do to change their perspective?

6) Reward Loyalty Over Results - A relative of # 2, promoting people you like or who support you or are less critical of you regardless of their performance rewards sucking up. Performers want rewards for performance. Again: good people will leave and bad people will get worse.

7) Make $ the Sole Purpose - This works for a subset of employees, but not most. Humans want to be part of something bigger. If all you focus on in your updates to your team are financial metrics, they will notice. Measure your purpose - that's why your team wants to be there.

8) Measure Things That Don't Matter - This is the "ticky-tack fouls" of business. Does it actually matter that your star performer took off a couple hours early to see her kid's play? What metrics that you track measure compliance and not progress? This burns people out.

9) Criticize Employees Publicly - Praise in public, criticize in private. If you want employees to act like entrepreneurs, give them safety to fail. If public embarrassment is a possibility, no one will take risks for you.

10) Don't Say "Thank You" - This is the opposite of # 9. For many high performers, recognition of their accomplishments can be more powerful than comp (not that it should be a replacement). If you aren't recognizing people for what they've built, they'll go somewhere else.