Toxic leadership is a type of leadership that is destructive to members of a team and the overall workplace. It’s a selfish abuse of power on the part of the leader. Under toxic leadership, it’s difficult for you and your peers to thrive. A toxic leader will usually have their own self-interest at heart.
Toxic Leader Behavior and Characteristics
- Frequent lying or inconsistent expectations
- Doesn’t listen to feedback
- Bloated Ego
- Self-interested
- Low emotional intelligence
- Threatened by smart, capable people
What causes toxic leadership?
Toxic leadership can stem from a lack of fundamental management skills, such as an inability to delegate effectively or to manage upwards. If a leader doesn’t delegate well, or isn’t clear about why something needs to be done, their teams will never be able to truly deliver the requirement.
Toxic Environments
- Low trust level
- Low morale
- Low production
- Low trust level
- High turnover
- High stress and dysfunction
How to fix a toxic workplace
- Take responsibility. Leaders can’t begin to resolve the problem of the toxic office without exploring how their own conduct may have influenced the situation. …
- Communicate and observe. …
- Re-establish a sense of security. …
- Get everyone on board. …
- Take action.
As a last resort leave the environment. It is very difficult to fix a toxic environment.