Thoughts on Toxic Workplaces and Supervisors and the choices that protect people and improve performance through enablement.

Most supervisors do not control the whole culture, but they do shape the daily experience of work for the people around them. In a toxic workplace, that matters enormously. Research and commentary on toxic work environments consistently point to disrespect, fear, abusive behavior, and low trust as core drivers of disengagement, turnover, and emotional strain. Supervisors may not be able to influence management behavior overnight, but they can influence whether their team operates in fear or with a sense of steadiness and respect.

Supervisors are the single point of organizational contact
and influence for most workers in most organizations.

That is the practical opportunity and tools exist to support the support. Even inside a difficult organization, a supervisor can become the person who reduces friction, clarifies expectations, protects dignity, and helps people find round wheel improvement opportunities instead of grinding everyone down as they all roll forward on their Square Wheels. The Square Wheels One image looks like this:

The supervisor’s Real Role

For most employees, culture is not an abstract corporate value statement. Culture is the boss they report to, the tone of meetings, the fairness of feedback, the speed of decisions, and whether it feels safe to raise a concern. That means supervisors are often the strongest local force for either toxicity or stability. A supervisor who is calm, clear, and fair can create a surprisingly healthy team climate even inside a larger organization that remains thumpy, bumpy and political.

A supervisor who is calm, clear, and fair can create a surprisingly healthy team climate.

The opposite is also true. Supervisors who avoid conflict, play favorites, communicate inconsistently, or pass pressure downward without context often magnify the damage done by the larger system. Employees do not need a supervisor who is perfect. They need one who is intentional, predictable, and willing to make the work more human. The possibilities for change among the more toxic managers are better as workplaces are implementing more performance-oriented AI systems and metrics.

Read more about the realities of The Supervisor Hellscape here.

What people need most from their supervisors

In difficult workplaces, people need a few essentials from their immediate leader. They need someone that asks and actually listens. They need respect in everyday interactions. They need clarity about what matters most. They need honest feedback that is not humiliating. They need someone who notices overload before burnout becomes visible. And they need to know that raising a problem will not automatically make them the problem.

Supervisors help most when they reduce uncertainty. A short, clear explanation of priorities can calm a stressed team faster than an inspirational speech. A fair response to a mistake can rebuild trust faster than a formal values campaign. Small moments accumulate. So do small injuries.

Supervisors can act so as to generate more enablement and remove the perceived roadblocks that are thought to block improvement.

Where Square Wheels conversations help supervisors

The Square Wheels One image and the many simple metaphors about people and performance are  especially useful for front-line managers because conversations help create a safer and simple practical language for team improvement. Instead framing on blame and on asking people to complain about management or confess frustration directly, a supervisor can put the image on the table and ask, “What are the Square Wheels making our work harder than it needs to be?” That question lowers the emotional temperature and gives people a way to name obstacles without feeling disloyal.

On a team, Square Wheels might represent confusing handoffs, unclear deadlines, unnecessary approvals, chronic interruptions, poor meeting habits, or conflict that everyone sees but nobody addresses. Once those wheels are visible, the supervisor can ask the more hopeful question: “What Round Wheels could we try?” That moves the conversation away from helplessness and toward agency.

Practical choices supervisors can make now

A supervisor in a rough workplace still has meaningful choices as to how they involve and engage their people in workplace improvement. This is basic management and the key job of front-line management. And any improvement is an improvement.

And any improvement is an improvement.

First, choose clarity over confusion. When senior leaders send mixed signals, translate priorities for the team as honestly as possible. Tell people what matters now, what can wait, and what remains uncertain. This reduces anxiety and prevents people from wasting energy on guessing games. Supervisors can be filters for information and catalysts for change.

Second, choose respect over pressure theater. Do not use sarcasm, public embarrassment, or urgency language as a management style. People may comply in the short run, but fear-based supervision steadily erodes trust and initiative. And, “conditioned helplessness” is an organizational reality in some workplaces.

Third, choose early conversations over avoidance. Small problems become major resentments when left untouched. When tensions rise between team members, address them directly and calmly before they harden into patterns. Generate conversations around issues and opportunities.

Fourth, choose fairness over favoritism. Toxic cultures often teach employees to watch who gets protected, who gets blamed, and whose voice counts. Supervisors build credibility when expectations, recognition, and accountability are handled consistently.

Lastly, choose listening over defensiveness. When someone names a problem, resist the urge to explain it away. In many toxic workplaces, employees have already tested whether candor is safe. A supervisor who listens carefully may be repairing more than the immediate issue.

Protecting people while improving work

One of the best things a supervisor can do is reduce unnecessary friction. This is where Square Wheels discussions can become more than a communication tool but part of the culture improvement process. Talk of the metaphor becomes a method for improvement because the gap between the realities of Square Wheels and the possibilities of the round ones creates cognitive dissonance, a very powerful motivator. In a team meeting, a supervisor can ask people to identify the biggest Square Wheels they face each week. Then the team can decide which one is within their control to improve.

The gap between the realities of the Square Wheels and
the possibilities of the round ones creates cognitive dissonance.

That might mean simplifying a handoff process, setting a rule for meeting agendas, clarifying who makes which decisions, or agreeing on response-time norms so people are not trapped in constant interruption. None of these changes will fix a deeply broken enterprise by themselves. But they can make one team more functional, more humane, and more effective. And they can start the process of continuous continuous improvement.

Those local improvements matter because they create evidence. They show employees that not all pain is inevitable and that a team can work differently. They also demonstrate to higher management that practical, employee-informed changes can improve flow and reduce frustration.

Helping people stay realistic and healthy

Supervisors also need to recognize their limits. Some workplaces are so unhealthy that the right answer for an employee may eventually be transfer or exit. A constructive supervisor should not pretend every problem can be solved inside the team. Sometimes the most ethical action is to help a person think clearly about options, timing, and self-protection.

That does not mean becoming cynical. It means being honest. If the larger organization continues to reward toxic behavior, ignore integrity concerns, or overload people chronically, supervisors should avoid false promises. What they can do is honestly support professional growth, encourage healthy boundaries, document issues appropriately, and create as much stability as possible in the space they control.

(A good article around these kinds of issues is John Losey’s, “Nobody Should Be Surprised in a Performance Review,” published by IntoWisdom Group on October 28, 2026. It is broader than managing poor performers, but it directly addresses how to have difficult performance conversations with dignity, clarity, and a practical focus on improvement.)

The opportunity for everyday leadership

Supervisors rarely get credit for the quiet ways they improve a workplace. Yet much of organizational health is built through ordinary daily choices: how feedback is given, whether stress is acknowledged, how conflict is handled, and whether people are treated as partners or problems. Those choices shape trust, and trust shapes performance.

Organizational health is built through ordinary daily choices.

The use of the simple Square Wheel metaphors and images gives supervisors a practical way to hold those conversations. It makes it easier to surface friction, involve people in finding better approaches, and create small wins that matter. In a toxic workplace, a supervisor may not be able to rebuild the whole organization. But that supervisor can absolutely help one team roll better, suffer less, and perform with greater dignity.

If you are interested in build out an improvement process in your organization, one that works from the bottoms-up and the tops-down, connect with me.

Mike Martin at Praxis is working with me to build out AI-assisted modules for a supervisor to help build out their workplace improvement efforts. Praxis LIVE and Praxis Journey will be highly effective and efficient ways to generate ideas and implement performance improvement. 

—

For the FUN of It!

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools.
Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant who is trying to retire!! He now lives in Cuenca, Ecuador.

You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com
Learn more about Scott at his LinkedIn site.

Square Wheels® is a registered trademark of Simmulations, LLC
and images are © Simmulations, LLC 1993 – 2026

Note: Please do not take my images and think about using them. It can generate a whole heap of problems given international copyright law and trademark law. Read this article for more information.

See a detailed overview of my tools, background and experiences by clicking here.

What I’m About:

My Square Wheels blog and website exist to help leaders, trainers, and facilitators make work smoother, more engaging, and more human. I focus on practical tools for process improvement, organizational change, and workplace collaboration that spark insight and deliver measurable results.

And I am convinced, after 30+ years of using Square Wheels^®, that it is the best facilitation toolset in the world. One can use it to involve and engage people in designing workplace improvements and building engagement and collaboration. It is a unique metaphorical approach to performance improvement and we can easily license your organization to use these images and approaches.

By blending proven facilitation methods, creative problem-solving, and engaging team activities, my mission is to support organizations in building energized, sustainable cultures of involvement and innovation.

Through accessible — and often free — resources and virtual facilitation tools, I aim to help teams everywhere collaborate more effectively, innovate continuously, and take ownership of their improvement journey.

#SquareWheels  #InnovationAtWork  #TeamEngagement  #FacilitationTools  #WorkplaceImprovement  #EmployeeEngagement  #CreativeProblemSolving  #OrganizationalDevelopment  #LeadershipTools #collaboration #leadership #motivation #communications #enablement #leadership #CreativeCommons #enablingperformance #teamwork #storytelling #storyasking #enablement #disruptiveengagement #un-dis-engagement #un-dis-empowerment #innovation 

© 2026 Simmulations, LLC. Please note that “Square Wheels®” is a registered trademark of Simmulations, LLC. and materials, original wagon line art, text, and visual designs are protected. Original line art by Roy Sabean, used under rights owned by Simmulations, LLC and formerly Performance Management Company, a sole-proprietorship of Dr. Scott J. Simmerman. Original concept and source artwork © Simmulations, LLC; derivative visuals sometimes created with assistance from Perplexity Pro AI.