Introduction
I have interviewed thousands of employees all over the world to gain understanding of their workplace cultures in preparation for working with their leadership teams to create outstanding working environments, increase engagement, innovation and productivity, and maximise staff retention. In this post, I will share how unintended leadership actions and behaviours can be perceived as toxic, and the impact they have on staff morale, productivity, engagement, and retention.
Of course, there are some exceedingly toxic individuals in the highest positions of leadership that are actively corrupt, self-serving and genuinely could not care less about anything other than their own power and wealth. It is rare for such people perceive any need for coaching or changing their behaviour in any way, and are virtually impossible to influence if they are the person or people with the highest levels of authority, whether that be in the public or private sectors.
For the purpose of this blog, these are not the people I am focussing on!
Lack of Awareness
Very few people will proactively challenge aggressive leadership behaviours or provide objective feedback on how those behaviours are affecting them. Most people will fear a negative reaction, and even perceive it as a CLM (Career limiting move!) And, if they aren’t made aware that people are unhappy, and the potential subsequent consequences, there is no apparent reason for the leaders to change their behaviours. Most leaders’ key activities will be focussed on major decisions around strategy, budgets, technology, client demands, and other business-related issues, so unless they have identified a serious major increase in attrition or some other blatant red flag where employees are concerned, most will understandably assume that all is well and it’s business as usual out there in the wider workplace.
I have also recognised, that in almost every case, the leader concerned is highly intelligent, knowledgeable, technically excellent and driven. These are very positive attributes, but the flipside can be frustration and impatience with ‘lesser’ mortals! This frustration and impatience can manifest itself in various negative behaviours such as scolding, criticising, eye-rolling, interrupting and just generally demeaning people. They very rarely offer encouragement or recognition, and believe their reactions are completely justified.
The View from the Ground
My client involvement takes two broad forms:
- Individual 360 degree feedback coaching for executive leaders and / or …
- Group leadership team programmes
In both cases, we must understand the perceptions of those that we lead if we are going to address it effectively. It all starts with listening!
The process begins with gathering feedback from a range of employees, clients and other relevant stakeholders as applicable.
I use quantitive surveys with scoring systems for measuring progress, but my main focus is on qualitative feedback that gets right to the heart of where the attention must be focussed. This ensures relevance and efficiency when determining actions that are required to create a top-class working environment.
During my interviews and focus groups, I ask a range of broad questions such as:
- What do your leaders do best?
- How would you describe the leadership style of your immediate manager / person leading the organisation?
- What is the most important thing they need to work on?
- How do your leaders demonstrate their adherence to the company’s values?
- What do you need from your leaders to enable you to do your best work?
- How do you know when you’re doing a good job?
- Etc.
These questions create conversations that are very enlightening and paint a clear picture of the organisational culture. The feedback in many cases can be quite damning, and when presented to senior management, the reactions vary from surprise, to anger, to shock to upset. My job is to get each leader to accept the feedback, own it and address it.
Toxic Leadership – or Not?
With every group of leaders, having talked through the feedback, I ask them: “How many of you get up in the morning with the intention of upsetting or demotivating your employees?” No-one has ever raised their hand to this question, and I’ve asked it of hundreds of individual leaders and leadership teams.
So clearly, most leaders are well-intended and simply unaware of what their people need from them to enable them to do their best work. They are often regarded as saying one thing and doing another. Values statements are regarded as ‘nice to have’, ‘a poster campaign’ or even directly opposite to the values their people see demonstrated.
The outcome of this lack of awareness and the resulting behaviours can often be perceived as toxic. Most leaders, once the full business impact is realised and accepted, take immediate action to address the trends of damaging feedback, with eventual measurable results in reduced attrition, reduced absenteeism, greater productivity and more joined up team-working.
Of course, there will be leaders whose behaviour really is toxic. They may be aggressive, impatient, bullying, manipulative, sarcastic, intolerant, take all the credit – and are never wrong! They often have big egos and narcissistic tendencies – but even they can be turned around with robust 360 degree coaching and when there is enough feedback to open their eyes to the damage they are doing, usually without realising its enormity.
In some cases, I’ve uncovered in these toxic leaders, who are usually men, an inner lack of security and use this ‘strong-man’ behaviour as a cover-up for this. 360 degree coaching is an eye-opener for these individuals who are sometimes relieved to realise that they can be great leaders whilst being themselves and demonstrating some humility.
Similarly, some apparently toxic leaders have become that way out of frustration and anger. They are often in middle management positions and believe they have a lot to offer and have been over-looked not heard, and are continually pulled in two directions Hence the critical importance of working with the most senior leaders before focussing on subsequent levels.
The Role of Coaching
In my wide experience, the people that least think they need any coaching are always the ones that most do! They will resist meetings with a good coach unless their line manager insists on it, or if they end up in a mandated leadership programme as part of a wider employee engagement programme.
One of the most satisfying aspects of coaching, is turning around this toxic behaviour and it being sustained. However, it’s not a job for the faint-hearted!
In such 1-1 situations, breaking down initial hostility is my first priority, and I do this by:
- Empathising with them that they are giving up their valuable time when I recognise that they are working on very important tasks and to tight deadlines.
- Recognising that they would probably rather not be in this meeting.
- A small amount of small talk and picking up on any common interests or opinions to build rapport, ensuring that this is brief, out of respect for their time and recognising that they are often Type A personalities that want to get straight to the point.
- Assuring them that I will do all I can to make sure it is valuable use of their time.
- Explaining that there is a lot of very positive feedback, and although there is a high volume of formative feedback, it only represents two or three trends that need to be addressed. i.e. They don’t have to go away and fix a hundred behaviours or undergo a complete personality change!
To date, the hostility with every one of these coaching sessions has subsided by this point, and we have established a clear mutual respect upon which to commence the coaching process.
Well delivered feedback, both motivational and formative is key to a positive outcome and acceptance for the need for behavioural change. It must be delivered sensitively and with compassion, but with absolute clarity and no ‘sugar-coating’.
Conclusion:
Not all toxic leaders are innately toxic. Some have become that way due to lack of development and being badly led themselves. Others are simply unaware of how their personality and leadership style is perceived and how it impacts on others.
Organisational leaders that understand the impact of poor leadership and are serious about the necessity for employee engagement, well-being and the resulting benefits, must invest focussed time and effort into identifying toxic behaviours and ensuring that creating an inclusive and values-led culture is not opt-in or opt-out at any level of leadership.
In this case, the rewards are immense in multiple ways, including: Increased motivation, creativity, innovation, loyalty and retention across the organisation, improved reputation and measurable reduction in attrition and absenteeism.