Are you building culture or a cult?
When unquestioned vision and leadership can lead to unspoken risk.
I recently watched the Netflix documentary on WeWork, and while the story is packed with entrepreneurial ambition and visionary energy, it shone a light on how easily optimism can tip into orthodoxy.
What began as an inspiring and ambitious mission gradually unravelled into something toxic and diabolical. Under the spell of a enigmatic leader who demanded full throttle buy-in and allowed no room for challenge, the organisation's culture shifted. Rituals, mantras, and unquestioning loyalty transformed WeWork from a bold vision into something resembling a cult.
In an earlier article, I explored Toxic Positivity the idea that forced optimism erodes authenticity and psychological safety, impacting overall performance. But there's a deeper dysfunction that emerges when conforming is mandated – perhaps this is no longer just dealing with an unhealthy culture, but teetering into cult like territory.
WHAT DOES A CULT LIKE CULTURE LOOK LIKE?
The slide often begins with good intentions - strong values, passionate leadership, tightly defined ways of working, unofficial rules of engagement, a clear “what’s expected” tone. Over time, those intentions become non-negotiable rules. Cloning replaces individuality.
You culture may be ‘cultish’ if:
Disagreement is reframed as negativity.
“We need team players” becomes code for “don’t question anything.”
Cultural fit is a euphemism for conformity.
New hires are expected to assimilate quickly and quietly. Those who raise concerns are labelled “not getting it”, “high maintenance,” or “not the right fit.”
There’s leader worship.
Charismatic leaders become untouchable. Their decisions go unchallenged, and feedback loops close as people stop speaking truth to power.
Pleasing the leader matters more than performance.
Success is measured by how well you align with, or manage, the leader’s moods, preferences, and expectations. Initiative gives way to approval-seeking.
People spend more time managing up than doing the work.
Energy is spent decoding and strategising how to stay in favour, rather than focusing on outcomes or collaboration.
Important decisions are made by one person or a small inner circle.
Transparency is low. Input is superficial. Real authority sits with the top, and the rest of the organisation becomes reactive, not accountable.
Speaking up is career-limiting.
Whether subtle or overt, challenging the status quo leads to marginalisation. People are branded “difficult”, “disruptive”, “not on board.”
FROM POSITIVITY TO PERFORMANCE THEATRE
Toxic positivity plays a big role in cult-like cultures. When “good vibes only” becomes the mantra, we create environments where:
Problems are hidden or sugar-coated.
Emotions like anger, fear, or grief are labelled as problematic.
Strong women are expected to be only nice (not required for men).
Resilience is code for staying silent, pushing through, sucking it up.
This kind of culture punishes the very qualities that drive growth: vulnerability, curiosity, mistakes, disagreement, and difference.
Psychological safety, the bedrock of high-performing teams, requires space for real conversation. As Professor Amy Edmondson (Harvard Business School) puts it; “Psychological safety is not about being nice. It’s about candour, about making it possible for people to speak up.”
A cult-like culture does the opposite: it demands niceness and compliance at the expense of trust, innovation and results.
THE MYTH OF UNITY
Here’s the trap: leaders often confuse alignment with agreement.
Alignment is purposeful. It’s about shared goals and commitment to outcomes. But agreement is performative - especially when it's coerced.
True alignment comes after robust dialogue, disagreement, and debate. Cult cultures skip the dialogue and jump to consensus - fast, clean, and fake.
FROM CULT TO CULTURE
1. Audit your rituals.
What language, traditions, routines, or behaviours do you reinforce that might be promoting cult like mandates?
2. Separate values from dogma.
A healthy culture adapts its values to context. Dogma defends the value even when its harmful.
3. Reinforce psychological safety at all levels.
Make it safe to speak, especially when it's uncomfortable. Say the hard things. Mandate honesty and candour. This takes training, commitment, and accountability.
4. Invite dissent.
Literally. Ask your teams: What are we not seeing? What’s the elephant in the room? Let’s play the devil’s advocate. Challenge my thinking.
5. Develop your emotional intelligence.
Are you really listening or just hearing agreement? Emotionally intelligent leaders surround themselves with challengers, not cheerleaders, and they model empathy with edge.
THE CULTURE YOU BUILD IS THE RISK YOU CARRY
Culture isn’t just what you promote – it is also what you tolerate, excuse, or ignore.
When people feel pressure to conform rather than contribute, you’re not building culture, you’re building control.
For those who struggle or don’t stay, it is not always a sign they’re a poor cultural fit. Sometimes, it’s a sign that the culture itself is unfit for people.
And that kind of culture doesn’t scale. It implodes.
