Toxic Leadership: Detoxifying Your Culture and Encouraging More Mindful Leadership
By Kenneth Matos, PH.D.
Report Summary
Toxic leadership is a combination of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that have adverse effects on employees, the organization, and overall performance.
Toxic leaders focus on achieving short-term and personal goals, using abusive behaviors to bully or control others to the detriment of employees and the organization. Toxic leadership styles are devoted to advancing the leader’s interests at the expense of the institution and coworkers.
While toxic leaders can be highly effective in the short-term, their methods tend to burn out employees and present long-term risks for the organization. It is estimated that the productivity, turnover, and legal issues caused by abusive leadership cost U.S. employers $23.8 billion per year.
The current report presents findings from a survey asking 1,000 college-educated U.S. employees about the leadership of their immediate managers. More than half of respondents report that their immediate managers are mildly (32%) or highly toxic (24%). Employees working for toxic leaders (81%) suspect them of discrimination when assigning career opportunities, compared with nontoxic leaders (8%).
Toxic leadership styles harm organizations by creating workforces that are stressed, eager to turnover, and possibly motivated to pursue legal action for perceived discrimination. Read the full report to learn the two-pronged approach to addressing highly toxic leaders and the culture that promotes this leadership style.
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15Be can help you address toxic leadership in your organization. Visit our website to explore transformative solutions like the WELLTEAM Assessment and email kcavanaugh@15be.com with questions about how we can help you establish a healthier workplace culture.