It’s important to prioritize building a positive culture for your team, even when other pressing matters are vying for your attention.

The concept of culture is a topic I come back to because of questions I’m frequently asked by leaders. I find that people want something tangible and tactical they can do to enhance their culture. I’ve previously explained that culture creators and culture carriers are positive forces who can help build and maintain the culture of your team. But today I’m going to talk about people on the other end of the spectrum—the people who crush your culture.

Will Felps, professor at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands, designed a real-life bad apple experiment to see how one bad team member could affect the performance of the rest of a team. He divided college students into small groups and assigned them a task to complete together. What they didn’t know was that some groups had a bad apple planted on their team—a hired actor who was consciously a downer, a jerk, or a slacker. The study found that the groups with these bad apples performed 30-40% worse than their counterparts. It gets worse. They didn’t just perform poorly, but some of the other members of the group took on the traits of the bad apple. A group with a downer would become more pessimistic as a whole. A group with a jerk would produce more jerks. A group with a slacker would make the rest of the team apathetic.

On the whole, the experiment confirmed that one person can crush the culture of an entire team.

Some of you might be thinking about a person on your team right now. Maybe this is discouraging because you aren’t in a position to remove that person from your team. I have some good news. The experiment conducted by Felps produced one outlier that should give us hope. One group who had an actor playing a jerk was still able to push through to complete the assigned task well. In this group, there was another team member who was a strong leader. Whenever the jerk said something negative, the stronger leader quickly diffused the situation and reminded the team of their collective goal. As a result, the rest of the group chose to follow this leader rather than the bad apple.

So here’s the moral of the story: If there is a culture crusher on your team and you have the power to get rid of them, do it. Stop putting off the tough conversation. Pull the plug for the sake of your team. But not all of us have this kind of power. If you have a culture crusher on your team and you can’t get rid of them, choose to be the leader that your team needs. Be the positive force in your organization. Be the bright spot by reminding your team of your collective vision.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said,

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”

Don’t let one bad apple ruin the whole bunch!

Personally, I’m very excited about family changes in the next couple of weeks, as we’re expecting the arrival of our second child any day now. But I’m also excited about a professional accomplishment. For the second year in a row, out of all of the small businesses in Atlanta, ADDO was named the #1 Best Place to Work! This award is far more special to me than most others.

Here’s the truth: many business awards are based on how well your application was written or if you have a political connection with a member of the selection committee. The Best Places to Work awards are different. These are decided after a third-party organization conducts anonymous surveys of all employees in your business, and then makes the section based on objective and quantifiable metrics. After we won this award last year, I told you that one of the keys to our company culture at ADDO is that we don’t buy cheap toilet paper. In other words, we invest in the small things that show our team we care about them.

Today, I want to share three tactics we’ve focused on during this COVID season that helped make ADDO the best place to work in Atlanta in 2020. These principles will help any person trying to create a positive culture on any team—for your company, for your church, for your community, or even for your family.

1. Transparency:

Many leaders focus only on positivity painting a picture of a brighter future. While those elements are essential, they only help after a leader has defined reality. Said another way, you’ve got to be honest about the situation.

When the pandemic hit, we gathered our team, talked about our financial position, outlined the worst case scenario, and discussed “if this, then that” situations. Too many leaders are afraid of transparency. They are afraid that if they share too much that it will backfire on them. They fear that if the budget is tight, people may grow anxious. Or they worry that in a season of plenty people may feel entitled to a bigger piece of the pie. It’s not that there aren’t potential pitfalls of being transparent. But the benefits to your culture far outweigh the risks. Transparency builds trust, and trust is crucial to healthy culture.

Transparency builds trust.

2. Support:

During this unique season, we explored ways to support each of our team members in a personalized way. As a small organization, I understand it’s easier for us to do this well. The larger the organization, the more challenging it is to support individuals in a personal way. But the reality remains that different people need different things.

For each of our full-time employees, we provide a flexible spending benefit they can put toward what they uniquely need—healthcare, childcare, professional development, or an opportunity to give to a charity they care about. But there are other ways to care for your team members. If you’ve ever had more than one kid, you know your children are different and, therefore, need a different kind of care. Some need words of affirmation while others need more direction. The same is true of different people on your team.

3. Purpose:

This year, we’ve intentionally reminded our team why we do what we do as often as we can. During COVID, a lot of companies threw culture out the window, but at ADDO, we doubled down on it. In times of crisis, culture matters more, not less. When your family faces tragedy, you have to dig in rather than pull back. When your church walks through a tough season, it’s important to remind your members why you exist and what you’re working toward. When your business hits another obstacle, it’s even more important to connect your team’s work to its larger purpose.

In times of crisis, culture matters more, not less.

If this COVID season has distracted you from building a positive culture, it’s time to reorient your focus on what matters. You might be surprised to find that spending more time investing in your team members often increases performance and impacts your company’s bottom line.

Over the last three weeks, I’ve talked about the importance of purpose, perspective, and process, and today, I’m going to unpack persistence, which may be the most important key. Before we go any further, let me be clear—persistence is not fun. Persistence means pressing on in the face of difficulty and opposition. If there is no difficulty, there is no need to be persistent.

I knew this principle was important, but it became more clear to me a few years ago when I led our team through one of ADDO’s most difficult seasons.

At the time, there were three senior leaders who shared equal authority in running the company. I thought all of us had only minor differences in our sense of purpose and priority, but it turns out these differences were far deeper than I imagined. As time went by, we became like a dysfunctional family. For the sake of saving your time and my sanity, I’ll spare you the rest. It was a mess. Eventually, I had the tough conversation necessary to make it right. One of the leaders left ADDO taking some of our team with him, and I assumed the role I am in today. This was a difficult transition for our team, and as a leader, it was my responsibility to give our team a means to and reason to persist.

In a crisis, leaders must acknowledge the reality of the current situation and then inspire hope for a brighter future.

But, it needs to happen in that order. Offering hope without being honest about our present circumstances is fluffy and inauthentic. But only facts without hope can feel depressing. So as I led my team through this season, I had to find a balance of both. I needed to make it clear where we stood financially. I had to be honest about what would look different. But I also had to give them confidence that our company’s future was bright. Defining reality and giving hope helped my team not only persist but thrive. We came out of this tumultuous season and have never been more unified than we are today. And a few weeks ago, we were named the #1 Best Place to Work for small businesses in Atlanta for the second year in a row!

Persistence requires you to push through even in the darkest moments and believe in the hope of a brighter future. While slaves fled for their freedom on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman told them, “If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.” Tubman knew that no matter what was behind them, their only chance at freedom was to keep moving forward. She knew that surrender meant death or a lifeless existence, but that moving forward meant a chance at life.

When there is a crisis, the best leaders challenge people to be persistent despite their present circumstances. And persistence fuels leaders to excel in the other three keys to leading in a crisis.

The best leaders challenge people to be persistent despite their present circumstances.

When you persist through any crisis, you strengthen your resolve for your purpose, you obtain a perspective that helps you face future challenges, and you refine your processes to make you and your organization better for the future.

I know this season is hard, but I hope this blog series has encouraged you as a leader. Don’t simply wish it away. Use this season to lean in and learn something valuable. You never know how it could impact your future as a company.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve unpacked two keys to leading a crisis: purpose and perspective. Purpose gives us the fuel we need to persevere through the most trying seasons, and perspective helps us see ourselves, one another, our work, and the obstacles we face through a clearer lens. Once you’ve identified your purpose and gained a proper perspective of the crisis in front of you, putting a good process in place keeps you focused on doing the right thing at the right time.

Which brings me back to this statement: Without a good process, success is difficult to achieve and nearly impossible to repeat.

This is a line from my book The Lens. However, my affinity for process is not something that comes naturally to me. Let me be blunt: Systems feel stifling to me—I want as much freedom as possible! For much of my career, I’ve rejected attempts to put processes in place. But through years of experience, I’ve learned that sustained success is impossible without process. In a season of crisis and constant change, processes are even more important.

Sustained success is impossible without process.

Because my bias is usually against process, I strategically surround myself with a few teammates who love routines, schedules, and systems. They help me and the rest of our team see what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done, in order to accomplish our collective purpose. Their processes give us tangible ways to move forward when the obstacles we face feel overwhelming.

These same ADDO team members are uniquely gifted in helping some of our clients put their own processes in place. About two years, we partnered with a local government agency to help them create consistency in customer care across their organization. (Those are two things you probably never expected to see together: Government and Customer Service!)

But the group we were hired by had a visionary leader who knew they had the potential to do more. Our team knew that we could inspire or motivate for short-term improvements, but the only way to move the meter over the long haul was to put a process in place. We developed training modules with tangible benchmarks for success. For example, when interacting with a customer, stick to your ABC’s: ask for clarification, be specific, and communicate solutions. It seems simple, but by giving a framework, a process, and real actions to emulate, we were able to help this group create and implement a process for effective customer care.

Think about this year for you. What processes do you need to put in place in your organization, in your church, or in your business? Maybe you need to tweak some existing processes to adapt to a new season. Work to value schedules, routines, and organized action plans.If you’re more like me and don’t naturally create systems for yourself and others, surround yourself with people who are gifted in this way.

Need some more inspiration? Remember this:

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” –William A. Foster

Effective leadership comes as a result of effective processes. Remember the purpose, maintain the proper perspective, and put processes in place to keep the ship steady even during turbulent times.

Effective leaders connect their team’s work to its larger purpose, giving them the fuel they need to persevere through the most trying seasons. Purpose naturally leads us to our next key to leading in a crisis: perspective. Knowing your purpose clarifies your perspective of the storms you face in life.

Perspective is a powerful tool. Seeing the same thing from a different angle can completely change our experience of it. Consider an ocean view. It could appear never-ending from the top of a lighthouse. It could look like the home of a million creatures from the inside of a submarine, or it could appear dangerous from a helicopter with the waves rolling below. In each position, you are looking at the same ocean, but when your perspective shifts, your perception of the ocean, the sand, the water, and the waves changes.

The same is true when we face obstacles. We often feel like we’re at the bottom of a mountain, and the only way up is to scale a cliff. But if we would just walk along the base of the mountain for a while, we might find a trail to the top on the other side. It’s the same mountain, but your perspective of it is different. It will be challenging to climb, but you can climb it.

One of the ways you can lead well during a crisis is to constantly work to adjust your perspective.

This is especially important when building relationships with members of your team. One of our senior leaders at ADDO, Laura, tells the story of the first time she needed to have a difficult conversation with her team member Liz. Laura decided to confront her head-on, but it didn’t go well. Liz needed time and space to process this kind of critique, not a tense moment in the office. Laura later realized this reaction was part of Liz’s personality style. Had she had the proper perspective of Liz’s personality style at the time, this conflict could have been more productive.

This is why we’ve worked to create the ADDO Index. ADDO Index is a series of scientific assessments that reveals the different personality types and styles on your team. It’s designed to help you gain the right perspective of yourself and your team members. Knowing what motivates and energizes your team helps you lead them most effectively.

In his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says, “To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”

In order to grow as leaders, we need to be willing to change the way we see ourselves, one another, our work, and the crises we face together.

This takes humility,  intentionality, and open communication with the members of your team.

This week, work to change your perspective of one aspect of your personal or professional life. It could be a difficult relationship. It could be an on-going project. Or it could be our current crisis—in the midst of global pandemic. Whatever you choose, commit to see it in a new way.

Our lives feel anything but normal as we navigate the challenges of social distancing, adjust to changes in our work, and try to find common ground in a nation that has never felt more divided.

I know. You’ve heard enough about our present crisis, but I think it’s important for us to think about it from a leadership perspective. How does leading look different in a crisis?

When we face the storms of life, the world conspires for us to move in a different direction, but having an anchor steadies us and keeps us from going off course. Over the next four weeks, we are going to unpack four of these anchors—or four keys—to leading well during a crisis season: purpose, perspective, process, and persistence. Today, I’m going to unpack the importance of knowing your purpose.

A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. Without the rudder, you can’t steer the ship. It will blow and rock and glide toward whatever destination the elements take it. Your purpose is like a rudder. It gives direction to your life. It’s the reason you get up in the morning, and it’s the thing that keeps your ship moving toward your final destination when it’s being beaten by waves on every side.

Do you know your purpose?

It’s easy to simply say your purpose is one specific personal or professional goal, but a purpose should be much bigger. Leadership guru Simon Sinek calls this your WHY. He explains that every single one of us has a WHY. It’s “the purpose, cause or belief that drives every single one of us.”

Your purpose is why you do what you do. Since I co-founded ADDO back in 2011, our purpose has remained consistent: Inspire people today to impact tomorrow. While that purpose seems aspirational, it's consistent across all of our work. We take our purpose seriously and work to help other companies do the same. It’s interesting to see how having a clear purpose plays out in the broader business world.

ADDO is currently working with an international food and beverage company who owns a number of different restaurant brands. Each brand promotes a different feel, offers different products, and caters to different audiences. But each of them are tied to this parent company’s bigger purpose: “To provide opportunities for remarkable people to make a lasting positive impact on our community and the lives of others.” As a collective company, their goal is to leave a lasting impact on the lives of others, and each of these different restaurant brands is able to live out this purpose in their own unique context and community of customers.

As a leader, not only do you need to know your purpose, but you need to know and champion the purpose of your organization. You need to be eager and ready to remind others on your team why they’re doing what they’re doing—especially in the midst of a crisis.

As a leader, not only do you need to know your purpose, but you need to know and champion the purpose of your organization.

So here’s my challenge to you this week: Help connect the work your team does to your organization’s larger purpose. Knowing “the why” makes their daily tasks meaningful and helps them face the obstacles new to their work in 2020 with confidence and courage.

Centered leaders know who they are and why they do what they do. They are anchored in values, driving toward mission, and fueled by purpose. Centeredness is the groundwork for effective leadership. But once you’ve laid this groundwork, your personal development is not over! In fact, if we are going to lead effectively, we must be committed to continually getting better. And if we are going to get better, we must increase our own capacity.

‍Merriam-Webster defines capacity as “the facility or power to produce, perform, or deploy.”

Capacity is the potential you have, and that potential must grow. Think about it this way: If you are not getting better, your organization isn’t either. And if your organization is not getting better, it may be dying. Personal development is not just good for you; it’s imperative for the well-being of your organization.

Today I’m going to get super practical and give you three things to help you expand your ability, enlarge your potential, and increase your capacity.

1. Increase Confidence:

This advice does not conflict with the need to have humility. I’m not talking about being arrogant, but I get so tired of spending time with people who have limiting self-talk. I encounter too many people who put limits on their lives that God never put on them. They say things about themselves that set artificial limits. I am too young. I don’t know enough yet. I don’t have the graduate degree. I don’t have the right experience. I am not wealthy. I didn’t get the proper training. Maybe this is the reminder you need to increase your confidence. You aren’t limited by who others say you are. You aren’t even limited by who you think you are. You are who you God says you are. You will never increase your capacity and achieve your calling until you have more confidence in the person God made you to be.

2. Expand Connections:

“You show me the people you spend time with, and I will show you who you are becoming.” I’ve heard this statement a million times, and it’s for a good reason. It’s as true for the senior in high school as it is for the senior citizen.

Do you realize you might be one relationship away from changing the trajectory of your life?

One person who could mentor you. A client who could exponentially grow your business. A colleague whose idea might streamline your organization. A friend who gives you the counsel you desperately need. An advocate who elevates your cause. So surround yourself with people who challenge you to get better. Find someone who won’t let you quit on your dream. Hold onto the friend who stays close when things get hard. Truett Cathy used to always say, “Businesses don’t succeed or fail; people do.” If we want to succeed as leaders, we need to be around people who will help us get there.

3. Strengthen Commitment:

One of our core values at ADDO is grit, and it just might be the most important. Grit is an intangible quality the leaders desperately need. Decide you want something so badly that nothing will stop you from pursuing it. Stop talking about growing your business and do something about it. Find advisers, seek out investors, and hit the ground running toward your goal. Quit saying you’re going to eventually get out of debt. Instead, make a plan, slash your budget, and as Dave Ramsey says, “Live like no one else now, so you can live like no one else later.” Don’t delay investing in your marriage. Decide to dig in, pray together, invest in counseling, and do whatever it takes to strengthen your relationship. Stop saying you’ll eventually get involved in your church or a charity. Sign up to volunteer today. If you want to raise your capacity, you’ve got to raise your level of commitment.

Grit is an intangible quality all leaders desperately need.

Unlike some posts, this is not meant for just a few of us. Every. Single. A person reading this needs to increase their capacity. Pick an area and work on it. Whether it’s confidence, connections, or commitment, make a conscious choice to increase your capacity, and start today.

The results found by Bain & Company, a management consultancy, showed thirty traits common to most of these leaders. However, there was one trait in particular that every single one of the most effective leaders possessed—and it’s not what I expected. I assumed the most important traits of these top-tier leaders would be things like integrity, the ability to inspire, or consistently executing with excellence.

But according to this study, all of the most effective leaders are centered.

This means that their ideas or feelings may change, but who they are as people stays the same. They do not change their values based on the tides of public opinion, shifts in strategy, mounting obstacles, or even career moves. They know who they are, what they are about, and they allow this self-knowledge to drive their thoughts, decisions, and actions.

So, if this trait of being centered is so essential, it’s probably worth us taking a deeper dive. I think we could all stand to look in the mirror and perform a centeredness audit. Here are some questions for you today: Are you centered? Would the people around you—your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers—describe you as centered or as someone who is constant?

Regardless of where you find yourself on the centeredness spectrum, I believe there are three things that can help us foster this important trait.

1. Be anchored in values. Just like an anchor on a boat, your values keep you from straying too far from where you want to be. If you can’t name specific values for yourself, consider what is most important to you and write these things down. It’s impossible to be centered without knowing and holding to your values.

2. Drive toward mission. This idea of centeredness might project an image of immobility, but effective leaders are always moving forward toward a mission. Your goals may change and your strategies may shift, but the mission which motivates you should remain the same.

Your goals may change and your strategies may shift, but the mission which motivates you should remain the same.

3. Be fueled by purpose. If the mission is the target you are headed toward, the purpose is the gasoline that will motivate you to get there. Your purpose is the reason you do what you do. A compelling purpose gives you the energy you need to keep going when things are difficult.

Imagine that as an effective leader you are a steam locomotive. Your values are the tracks, keeping you from straying off course. Your mission is propelling you forward toward your desired destination, and your purpose is the steam, fueling your engine to run. A centered leader needs all three.

This week, consider how you can grow to be a more centered individual. Take one step this week. Define your values, write out your mission, or discuss your purpose with a friend or colleague. Your future self will thank you for it.

While this is a Christian book, each of us need to be reminded of this important concept, regardless of what we believe. In our subconscious, we naturally believe it’s about us.

A couple of weeks ago, Bart Newman spoke to our ADDO team at our company retreat. Bart’s currently the COO of Thrive Farmers Coffee, but his journey has been anything but conventional. Bart earned a master’s degree in Management, Economics, and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law, and practiced law at a firm here in Atlanta.

However, he left practicing law after September 11, 2001, and joined the military, completed a year-long tour in Iraq, and wrote a book inspired by lessons he learned titled Because of Baghdad: What a Father Would Say About Life, if He Didn’t Come Home to Say It. Bart’s resume speaks for itself, but the way he lives his life far outshines his accolades. I deeply respect him and was thrilled to have him speak to our team.

In his talk, Bart outlined his two keys to winning in a post-COVID world:

1. Care deeply.

2. Be Humble Daily.

‍On the surface, all of us would agree that humility is important. Many of us would amen and affirm Paul’s charge to the church in Philippi: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3–4). At our core, we know it’s important to care for the people around us.

But in the business world, humility is a trait that’s vastly overlooked and undervalued. Why? Deep down we want success to be about us. We desire the credit. We want to feel essential to the organization. We need to be an integral part of the process. And, far too often, we fail to see that our greatest opportunity for success lies in our pursuit of humility.

Bart said it this way: “Organizational effectiveness is inversely proportional to the amount that it is about me.”

Organizational effectiveness is inversely proportional to the amount that it is about me. –Bart Newman

I’ve learned this is true for my speaking engagements. Ike Reighard gave me some of the best speaking advice I’ve ever received. He said, “You can’t be the hero of your own story.” It’s easy to go up on stage wanting my audience to leave thinking that I am impressive. But my best messages come out of a deep care for the people I’m speaking to. Those messages impact more lives when I remember that every person in the audience is important and deserves to be elevated, equipped, and inspired.

The less I make it about me, the better my speech will be.

The same is true for any business. We’ve all felt the difference between the business focused on how it’s perceived by the customer and the one focused on caring for the customer. The first business may feel fresh, fun, and innovative. But their goal is for you to leave saying, “Wow, they’re awesome.” The second business is focused on making you feel awesome, and it wins in the long run by making you feel cared for, seen, valued, and important. So here’s my question for you today: What is motivating you and your organization? Are you motivated by a desire to elevate and care for people, or are you motivated by a desire to elevate yourself and your brand?

It’s not always easy, but take intentional steps toward humility this week. You may be surprised to find they are also steps toward growth and success.