Episode Overview
In this episode of Culture Bites, Dominic unpacks approval culture – a common workplace culture pattern that often looks positive but quietly undermines performance.
Approval cultures are typically described as “nice” environments. People are polite, meetings feel harmonious, and open conflict is rare. But as Dominic explains, this surface-level harmony often hides avoidance. People agree in meetings, soften feedback, and avoid saying no – leading to stalled execution, unclear accountability, and declining performance standards.
This episode explores what approval culture really is, how it shows up in day-to-day work, what causes it (particularly leadership reactions and unclear measures), and what leaders can do to shift toward healthier, higher-performing cultural norms.
Subjects Discussed
- What an approval culture is – and how it differs from genuine workplace harmony
- Why approval cultures create agreement without commitment
- How approval culture shows up in meetings, feedback, and priorities
- The “everyone agrees, but nothing happens” execution problem
- Why feedback disappears or becomes overly sugar-coated
- How approval cultures lead to too many priorities and poor focus
- The performance impacts: follow-through, accountability, and standards
- Leadership behaviours that unintentionally reinforce approval culture
- The role of vague goals and subjective performance measures
- How conformity pressure quietly reduces healthy dissent
- Practical leadership shifts that improve execution and results
- Moving from approval-seeking to constructive, high-performance cultures
Key Insights
While it often looks harmonious, approval culture is driven by avoidance. People feel pressure to be liked, stay agreeable, and maintain surface-level peace rather than express real concerns or challenge decisions.
Agreement without commitment slows execution.
“Soft yeses” feel efficient in the moment but create drag over time. Decisions lack real buy-in, priorities compete, and follow-through fades – making poor execution the norm.
Feedback becomes diluted or disappears entirely.
In approval cultures, feedback is often sugar-coated or avoided. The familiar “feedback sandwich” turns into all bread, leaving people unclear about expectations, performance, and development.
Unresolved issues go underground.
When concerns aren’t raised early, they fester. Small problems become larger, more emotional, and harder to fix later.
Approval cultures struggle to say no.
A desire to keep everyone happy leads to too many initiatives and competing priorities. When everything is a priority, nothing gets done well.
Leadership reaction shapes the culture more than intent.
If leaders react poorly to bad news or disagreement, people quickly learn to filter what they share. Over time, leaders hear what they want to hear – not what they need to hear.
Vague goals shift performance into subjective territory.
When goals and measures are unclear, performance conversations focus on relationships and likeability rather than outcomes, contribution, and standards.
Inviting dissent requires deliberate signals.
Small language choices matter. Questions like “Does that make sense?” subtly push agreement. Asking “What did I miss?” or “What questions do you have?” creates space for challenge and diverse perspectives.
Healthier cultures balance relationships and results.
Dominic points to Affiliative cultures done well – where trust and relationships are strong – combined with Achievement cultures that clarify goals, measures, and performance expectations.
Changing approval culture takes persistence.
Because people will often agree to the change itself, leaders must actively surface what’s unspoken and reinforce new expectations over time.
Resources Mentioned
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