the most powerful demotivator

Having coached numerous leaders in how to effectively facilitate their tribal gatherings (Pre-Starts and Toolbox Talks), I feel urged to share with you my shock/horror after witnessing a few recent live events. To be honest, I haven’t seen such low quality skills in action for a long, long time. These guys, even if they don’t know it, need some serious help here.  
From my assessment, every critical indicator observed would receive a rating of ‘very poor’. Nil preparation, monotone, lack of interest in subject matter, inappropriate humour, regular reference to their company as ‘they’ (e.g. this is what they've said you have to do), nil engagement, pervasive negativity, either not caring or unaware that many in the room were chatting or browsing on their phones, dismissive of others views, I could go on and on.
This is perhaps needless to say, but Pre-Starts and Toolboxes are extremely potent tools for establishing safety standards and culture as well as building the very fabric of the team, creating (or destroying) trust and morale. They not only set the tone of that whole shift, they have the power to inspire or demotivate the team’s very DNA. And believe me it was the latter going on. I do get engaged increasingly to do culture whispering but there wasn’t anything subtle about these coalmine canaries.