Toxic leadership: a vicious circle and how to break it

A couple of weeks ago, we posted a video on toxic people in organizations. We received a lot of comments on this video, especially because lots of people recognized this.

Today we learn more about toxic leadership from our mentor Wesley Boers.

The key message is that leadership and culture are strongly connected and can create a vicious circle.

Companies that are strongly focused on financial results, market share, and beating the competition create soil for toxic leadership. Behavior is not considered as important.

Toxic leaders are convinced they must ‘toughen up their people’ because they think this is the only way they can win.

The biggest risk is that your best people leave the company. Typically, the followers stay, but these are not the people who will make your company great. The people who show toxic leadership characteristics stay as they see it as a confirmation that this style is tolerated. This creates a pattern of toxic leadership which creates a toxic culture.

• Don’t point out individuals; they are only the symptoms.
• Try to figure out when the vicious circle has started; what were important triggers? Typically, triggers are conflicts in the past that have not been solved.
• Address the issue by showing that the company does not perform at its full potential
• Make toxic leaders aware of the impact of their behavior on other people