In every organisation, there are leaders who inspire, empower, and foster a positive work environment. Unfortunately, there are also people in leadership positions who are the opposite; they poison their workplace and make working with them a miserable affair. They are known as toxic leaders – all too common in modern day workplaces.
This article sheds light on the characteristics and detrimental effects of a toxic leader on their team. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for organisations to recognise and address toxic leadership before it erodes employee morale, productivity, and ultimately, the company's success.
At its heart, leadership is a selfless endeavour. The benefit of the team is paramount, and a good leader operates under the notion that people are not a means to an end, but rather they are ends in themselves. A toxic leader, however, usually operates with a self-centered mindset, prioritising personal gain over the well-being of their team.
It leads to the question; how can you recognise a toxic leader? It’s not that hard – indeed, you may already know some. They exhibit a range of harmful traits that poison the workplace, including:
Lack of Empathy: Toxic leaders disregard the feelings, concerns, and well-being of their team members. They fail to understand the impact of their decisions and actions on others, leading to a culture of indifference and resentment. As noted above, they treat others as means to an end, and only value workers for what they can do, not who they are.
Micromanagement: Toxic leaders have a need for control and constantly micromanage their team, thereby stifling creativity, autonomy, and innovation. This behaviour creates an environment of fear and suffocates individual growth. They often believe that only they can do a task correctly, that others will not meet their standards. Micromanagement is usually a sign of low trust, and says more about the manager than it does the skills of their team.
Bullying and Intimidation: Toxic leaders resort to bullying tactics, belittling, and intimidating their subordinates. They use fear as a means to exert power, eroding trust and self-confidence within the team. They leverage their positional authority to offset their own sense of being an imposter in the role. As in the playground, bullying in the workplace often comes from low self-esteem.
Lack of Accountability: Toxic leaders rarely take responsibility for their own mistakes or failures. Instead, they shift blame onto others, creating a culture of scapegoating and fostering a sense of insecurity among team members. They often assume their position will protect them and that they can label their team as underperforming when questioned. Conversely, any positive reporting and feedback is greedily hoarded for themselves, never shared with the team who produced the results.
Manipulation and Favouritism: Toxic leaders play politics, manipulating situations and favouring certain individuals based on personal biases. This fosters a toxic work environment rife with favouritism, resentment, and reduced teamwork. A workplace with cliques and an entrenched ‘us vs. them’ mindset is difficult to focus on the bigger vision and to make collaborative approaches to workplace problems. Toxic leaders, being about themselves and not the collective, too often fall into the belief that other employees are obstacles. They seek out ways to undermine or remove these people instead of directing efforts towards collective success.
The impact of a toxic leader on their team – and indeed, an entire organisation – can be severe and far-reaching. Some of the impacts toxic leadership can have include:
Decreased Morale: Constant exposure to a toxic leader erodes team morale, leaving employees feeling undervalued, demotivated, and emotionally drained. This negativity spreads throughout the workplace, affecting overall team performance.
High Turnover: Toxic leadership contributes to a high turnover rate as talented individuals seek healthier work environments. The loss of skilled employees results in increased recruitment costs and decreased productivity.
Lack of Collaboration: Toxic leaders create an atmosphere of competition rather than collaboration. Team members become guarded, reluctant to share ideas or support one another, hindering teamwork and innovation.
Reduced Productivity: Toxic leaders stifle creativity and initiative, resulting in reduced productivity. Employees become disengaged, simply going through the motions without offering their full potential.
Health and Well-being Impact: Toxic leaders contribute to increased stress levels among their team members, leading to burnout, decreased job satisfaction, and even physical and mental health issues.
Lose not all hope, ye who work here. Toxic leadership can be addressed. Organisations must take proactive measures to identify and address toxic leadership. Some actions include:
Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where employees feel safe to voice concerns and provide feedback without fear of retribution. This needs to extend throughout the workplace, from CEO to the brand-new entries. It takes time to build this culture, so expect hurdles along the way. The result is worth it though.
Training and Development: Provide leadership development programs that emphasise emotional intelligence, empathy, and effective communication to prevent toxic behaviours. It’s important to remember that toxic leaders don’t think they are toxic. They were promoted or hired for a reason, and there’s a good chance that they have the potential to turn their approach to leadership around. With training and assistance, they may turn the corner and regain their value to the team.
Accountability and Consequences: Hold leaders accountable for their actions and implement consequences for toxic behaviour, creating a culture of professionalism and respect. Some people were not meant to be leaders, and some employees aren’t worth retaining regardless of skills or knowledge. If there is clear evidence that a leader in the organisation is a toxic person, not just a toxic leader, then a quick separation is usually in the company’s best interest.
Seek Feedback: Regularly collect feedback from team members to identify potential toxic leadership patterns and address them promptly. If necessary, the feedback cab be anonymous. An option for many workplaces is to introduce a form of 360° reporting, where managers and supervisors receive feedback on their performance from their boss, their peers, and their team.
Lead by Example: Promote and celebrate positive leadership behaviours, fostering a culture that values empathy, collaboration, and fairness. Workplace culture thrives in an environment of positive leadership, starting from the top. It’s much easier to build a sense of ‘who we are’ and ‘how we do things in this organisation’ when these beliefs are demonstrated daily and can be emulated by the team.
It is worth noting that toxic leaders aren’t necessarily bad people. Some are, and as noted earlier, these individuals should be removed as efficiently as possible. Often, however, toxic leaders in the workplace are good humans who aren’t entirely sure how to use the leadership tools at their disposal. A simple litmus test for this might be to ask whether a leader is someone you would: work for; work with; catch up socially; avoid altogether. If they are someone you can work with or have a coffee with, there’s a high chance they are unaware of their leadership behaviours, and that with training and development, their potential can be released.
Too many employees have felt the negative effects of toxic leadership. Toxic leaders have a destructive impact on their teams and organisations. Recognising the signs of toxic leadership and taking action to address it is vital for creating a healthy, productive work environment. By promoting positive leadership traits and addressing toxic behaviour promptly, organisations can nurture a culture that empowers and inspires their employees to reach their full potential and achieve collective success.
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