You’ve figured out the perfect solution. You tell your team how excited you are, assign responsibilities and send them off. You notice a couple of people looking resigned…

The fabric of Texas Association of Counties is their fundamentals, twenty-five standards that each member uses to determine the direction of their work. Number seventeen, "LEAD BY EXAMPLE," is a fundamental that places each person in a role as a leader. Knowing that each person leads by example gives each member a sense of accountability, all the way to the security department.

What made a safe environment possible was to talk about where it had not been safe, at all, up to that point.  It takes courage, conviction, and true commitment from leadership.  And it is very possible, and not all that complicated, once you choose to no longer tolerate a toxic environment.