Toxic Leadership

For some, leadership can be seen solely as a way of control. A way to be able to reveal their true nature and desire to seek an environment where they can be dominant, arrogant, and able to satisfy their own enormous egos. These toxic leaders often can be seen as intentionally hurting others with their egocentric decisions, and/or unintentionally injuring others through displaying reckless actions and carelessness. I for one have experienced both types of toxic leaders.

The first time I encountered an intentionally toxic leader was when my former friend and I were doing a presentation together that was intended to educate people about safety. Nevertheless, she ended up going on a trip the weekend before it was due, which resulted in me doing the whole pre-planning/, project myself. However, this was not the actual issue that bothered me, what really showed me the toxicity and lack of leadership she had was the fact that the day we were presenting she took control of the presentation entirely and then proceeded to say that she had “slaved endless hours” over the research, that I had consequently done. By doing so, the teacher removed points from my grade and gave her a higher grade due to her self-enhancing actions that cost me a lower grade than her; needless to say we no longer are friends.

The second experience I had was with an unintentionally toxic leader who was my boss. Although she was a nice individual, I believe she was not suited for her job. The reason I say this is due to the fact that she did not know how to go through inventory, check supplies, nor manage the employees and often gave into peoples demands in order to be the “liked” manager rather than the good or competent one. As a result, this caused a lot of miscounts during inventory and resulted in hundreds of dollars being lost/stolen in merchandise. However, although my boss did display the signs of a toxic leader, I felt like the unintentional toxicity was not as grave as the intentional since she did not intend on people actually getting hurt but rather simply wanted to be liked/accepted.

Nevertheless, in both situations where you either have someone who is deliberately trying to injure others in order to get ahead (intentional) or is so incompetent that they drag other people down with them (unintentional) both have significant consequences that can ruin interrelationships and working environments and ultimately sabotage the goal or company that is trying to be improved and achieved. Ultimately, I found this reading interesting since it did not only give you a theoretical idea of toxic leaders but went into depth with the characteristics and behavioral issues toxic leaders possess, and gave you tips on how to improve the situation you are in or at least cope with these inevitable individuals who you will meet at some point or another in your lifetime.