Originally published on March 30, 2022.

Four years ago I posted on the subject of toxic leadership. In fact, I wrote about this sad reality in back-to-back posts. I was prompted by an article I came across that spoke eloquently on the subject of toxic leaders. In recent weeks, I have again been motivated by the unfortunate experiences of colleagues and clients with toxic leadership to review what I had written before. Unfortunately, not much has changed in that time period. One might argue, in fact, that things have gotten worse rather than better.

Why? Why are we still burdened with a mix of incompetent, self-serving, and even malicious leadership? Why are some of these leaders recruited, tolerated, enabled, promoted and even lauded? The recent examples that have put my clients, colleagues and myself to despair include:

leaders who drift from leadership role to leadership role, staying in place only a couple of years or less - what are organizations not seeing that causes them to overlook such transient commitment or capability?
leaders who have an incredibly high rate of turnover in their teams and who brush off such turnover, year over year, with reference to work ethic, competitive marketplace, lack of commitment and so on. Those "arguments" might stand up to scrutiny for a short period of time, however, when that reality persists year-over-year for a decade then one should start to question the leader's skills in hiring, guiding, mentoring and developing their team. Or questions should be asked about the work environment that they are creating.
leaders who actively undermine their subordinates. This takes many forms - throwing your direct reports under the proverbial bus when the organization fails to perform; failing to take accountability for poor decisions/outcomes that directly trace back to the leader; failure to prioritize initiatives and/or providing staff with tools to succeed - then making them pay the price for inevitable failure; leaders who expect/demand their subordinates take responsibility and accountability for their actions but then impose their own solutions that align with a personal (not organizational) agenda.
leaders who pay lip service to team development and succession planning, but then either don't invest in capacity building of their teams or even actively diminish the skills, abilities, opportunities - and even confidence - of their direct reports. Why? Variety of reasons that I have seen encompassing a full range of motivations from ego boots to complete insecurity and fear on the part of a leader.
leaders who create an "us versus them" culture. This can happen at many levels and I have seen this play out where a CEO pits Board against Administration, a leader pits management against staff (or union), department vs department, and so on. Again, information and withholding of information, restrictions in decision-making power and authority, and other tactics are used to reinforce and support the toxic leader's position of power and personal agenda.

As I said, all of these recent realities brought to mind an article I came across on toxic leaders some years ago. It was written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy at Indiana University-Purdue University. The author had so many good points that I decided to simply share and comment on his thoughts. In this case, I've emphasized Gunderman's points in bold lettering and provided supplementary comments based on personal experiences.

Gunderman posits that just as effective bosses can do considerable good for an organization, toxic ones can inflict a great deal of damage. In my estimation, its also true that the extent of the damage is not fully realized or understood until the toxic leader leaves or is let go. Oftentimes the organization is left repairing the damage for some time after.

Sadly, the individual that takes on leadership AFTER a toxic leader departs is often left to clean up a substantial mess. Worse yet, by discovering or stumbling across the wreckage left behind by the toxic leader it is often the successor that pays a heavy price - including termination - for the damage done.

The author suggests that the first step to coping effectively with a toxic boss is recognizing that you have one. Here are the 10 indicators that Gunderman provides to help you diagnose that your boss is probably toxic.

One. When the toxic boss comes on board it feels as thought all fellowship and joy are being sucked out of the organization. Like Dementors in Harry Potter, toxic bosses drain people of their passion, leaving nothing in their wake but a widespread feeling of despair. Employees come to resemble mice who have been subjected to random electrical shocks, lapsing into a state that psychologists called learned helplessness. As another former employee of a toxic boss put it, "It wasn't long before the whole organization took on a soulless feel."

Two. Within weeks of the toxic boss's arrival, the mercury in the organization's "distrustometer" begins rising precipitously. People begin eying one another with suspicion. Lively meetings become deadened, as though no one would dare voice a divergent opinion. According to one employee, "People stopped saying what they really thought. If they ever spoke their mind, they did so only after glancing over both shoulders to make sure no one was listening, and then they spoke in a whisper. It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

This one really resonated with me from a couple of my past experiences. I've had a "leader" who has either taken an active approach of "divide and conquer" as it related to their subordinates or actively disengaged from their team leaving agreements or disputes to fester. If you take a lead from Patrick Lencioni's work, the absence of trust that is created (and fostered) leads to suppression of any constructive conflict, lack of common commitments and so forth. By design or neglect, a toxic environment is established. Similarly, if you start to see a rise in sick time, stress leave, and turnover amongst staff, the organization needs to dig deeper and not settle for simplistic answers/excuses.

Three. Power becomes consolidated in the hands of a few people who report directly to the toxic boss. People who question this process are moved aside or completely out of the organization. In many cases, the toxic boss achieves these ends not by direct confrontation, but like a subtle poisoner, delivering the lethal dose in tiny amounts that build up over time.

Four. Toxic bosses quickly seize control of the pathways along which knowledge is shared. Organization charts and reporting hierarchies are rearranged so that everything flows through one central hub, with few if any alternatives. Without admitting to it, toxic bosses feel threatened by more open patterns of information flow. As the former colleague of a toxic boss put it, "He sensed that if others knew what was really going on, his position, power and prestige would be undermined."

I've experienced these realities directly and seen too many of my clients/colleagues share this reality. Some leaders become incredibly adept at this and even leave a subtle suggestion that the one-on-one discussions - versus team-based engagement - represent a privileged reality between leader and subordinate. I trust you more than the others. You are more capable than the others. Sometimes the approach is much more direct - thou shall not speak with your peers! The whole goal is to ensure that a complete picture of reality is only held by the toxic leader. Even appropriate collaboration for the benefit of the organization is seen as a threat to leadership power.

Five. With a toxic boss, employees may have a hard time remembering why they came to work for the organization in the first place. The true mission of the organization is obscured. The toxic boss shifts everyone's attention to crasser metrics, such as revenue and rankings, and the organization's mission is treated as a mere tool for boosting results.

Sad but true. I've been in one too many large organizations where the stated values seemed very remote from the actions that the "leader" or leadership team took on a regular basis. The substantial disconnect led to more than just a bit of disengagement on the part of employees and seemingly intractable morale issues.

Six. Toxic bosses leave others feeling manipulated and used. Some are simply so insensitive that they do not appreciate the toll that their modus operandi takes on their colleagues, but others seem positively to revel in it. Said an employee, "She seemed to believe that the only way to make herself bigger was to make the people around her feel progressively smaller."

Seven. Soon after the toxic boss arrives, people begin disappearing. Almost invariably, such departures go unannounced, completely devoid of fanfare or explanation. One day they are there, and the next day they are gone, and only later do people learn that former colleagues were abruptly told one day to pack up their offices and hit the pavement. The toxic boss will never express gratitude to their service, publicly or personally.

The other way that I've seen this reality play out is not in letting people go or marginalizing those with contradictory perspectives but rather in hiring individuals who will be more malleable to the toxic leader's directives. This sometimes simply plays out with a feeling of personal obligation that a new hire has to the person who has hired them. Alternatively, I have seen toxic leaders ensure that new hires ARE simply weaker or less experienced and, therefore, can pose no credible contrary points of view. Overall, a great means to ensure the toxic leader remains unchallenged but hardly a tactic to build organizational strength and success.

Eight. The toxic boss has no interest in what others have to say. Some savvy operators appear to listen to other perspectives, but when it comes to action, their in-boxes are black holes. They seem to believe that being an effective leader means being the center of attention. Before long, their behavior at meetings begins to reveal their true stripes. Said one former employee of a toxic boss, "She kept cutting other people off, belittling their contributions, and ended up listening to nothing but her own voice."

Nine. The toxic boss starts to act like a playground bully. People are treated not as sources of insight but as tools of implementation. When they diverge from this path, the toxic boss reminds them how easily they could be replaced. In short, the tools of persuasion give way to the instruments of coercion. And such techniques are powerfully augmented by the enhanced sense of vulnerability that accompanies the swelling ranks of the disappeared.

I have vivid memories of getting a phone call "pep talk" from a toxic leader of mine that was a couple of rungs higher up the ladder than I. Her relative distance from me didn't dissuade her from giving me a shout and probably reflected as much her lack of confidence in my direct supervisor as in myself. At the time, my organization was going through significant - and noisy - change. The essence of the pep talk was summed up in her parting words to me - "There are going to be casualties in this time frame, don't be one of them." I understood my role and standing quite clearly. I understood that I was quite an expendable and replaceable tool.

Ten. Do you feel like your every move is being watched by unseen eyes? Like you are in some kind of jail? Do you feel like your boss is taking leadership lessons from Jeremy Bentham? His creation, The Panopticon is a building with a watchman sitting at the center, looking out on all the inmates, who are arrayed around the periphery, each in a separate cell. The inmates cannot see the jailer, generating a sense of constant surveillance.

For me this goes back to the feelings of mistrust created by the toxic leader ala Lencioni. In those environments where a toxic leader's impact has been particularly "impressive", it becomes the unfortunate reality that no member of the team believes they can trust any other member of the team - peers or subordinates. The environment becomes marked by extraordinary caution and guardedness. The environment becomes risk averse and lacking in a desire for innovation and creativity.

At the end of this article - and my supplementary comments - we have been provided with one set of variables that describe what toxic leadership looks like. What is lacking is how to effectively tackle it. In fact, Gunderman seems to suggest that the best one can do is to COPE effectively with toxic leader. Is this really all that we are left with as a tactic when dealing with a toxic leader despite the very real damage being done to an organization?

So I ask you, what's been your experience in dealing with toxic leadership? More importantly, what steps did you and others take to effectively DEAL with a toxic leader? I'm looking forward to your answers, supplemented by my thoughts, as a means to creating a response or tactics that might be useful to us all!

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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
www.breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543