Sociopathy is Rewarded in Corporate Culture
The corporate world often values and rewards traits associated with sociopathy, such as ruthlessness, vision, and high focus on goals. Steve Jobs is often cited as a model of leadership where these qualities were admired. This focus on cutthroat tactics and maximizing quarterly profits means that when a toxic boss acts toxically, they may be rewarded, not reprimanded, for their "success."
The Toxic Paradox: Kiss Up, Kick Down
Toxic people have mastered the art of "kiss up, kick down":
Kiss Up: They expend all their effort su-king up to the boss and higher-ups, focusing on perception as the most important element of career success.
Kick Down: They sabotage co-workers, spread vicious gossip, withhold crucial information, or take credit for others' work.
Cognitive Dissonance: When higher-ups consider a toxic person their favorite, they will justify the person's poor performance to advance them. Management may even gaslight a good employee who raises concerns by shifting the blame onto them.
Toxic Work Environments are Enabled at the Top
Weak or ill-equipped leadership creates and enables the toxic environment:
Underinvestment in Training: Many companies underinvest in basic management or leadership training, leading to ineffective leaders.
Poor Modeling: When a toxic executive is at the top, their leadership style—characterized by unrealistic expectations, setting people up to fail, and openly berating people—trickles down and is modeled by other leaders, rapidly declining the work environment.
Insecure Leaders: Many people pursue leadership for validation, power, or to feel important, making them insecure leaders who may tolerate other toxic people.
Toxic people are the Bigger Problem (and Harder to Deal With)
In many cases, management knows a toxic person is a problem but doesn't fire them because they are the bigger liability.
The manager (e.g., "Ted") realizes the toxic person (e.g., "Carol") would "lose her sh-t, file complaints, and cause all sorts of headaches" if confronted. The manager may instead choose to reprimand the more agreeable, non-toxic employee who they know will try to "keep the peace."
- Their Reputation Matters More Than Results
Ultimately, toxic people are experts at exploiting the idea that their reputation with the higher-ups matters way more than results. They become untouchable once they establish influence with executive leadership.
Most people try to either play dirty office politics or avoid them, but the third option is to learn how to play office politics using simple power moves to make yourself immune from their tactics. But how? Does any of this ring a bell for you?