• Speaking Negatively About Customers. If negative talk becomes habitual, you are more likely to think of your customers not as allies, but as scapegoats. After all, it’s easier (and faster) to blame the customer for everything that is going wrong than to take a good, hard look at yourself and your product, service and people. Adopting a negative perspective will result in you missing a critical opportunity to address the issue and come up with a creative solution to the problem.
• Yelling, Talking Over People and Cutting People Off. Your people want to see you calm, cool and collected, especially when things are going wrong. Do your best to keep good manners even in the midst of chaos. That’s where it really counts anyway,
• Romantic Relationships with Company People. A great way to screw up a promising business is a personal relationship that goes bad. This includes anyone that works for the company, whether that is as an employee, or a third party, like board members, advisors, lawyers, etc.

There should be zero tolerance for anyone in the organization that exhibits this behavior- including you. If these perspectives and behaviors develop, even for a short period of time, they will significantly undermine the strength of your team and potentially, the progress of your business for years to come. A strong company culture isn’t something you build overnight, but with clear boundaries and a leader willing to emulate them, you can begin to build a devoted, effective and supportive team whose strength will match that of the business you’re growing together.