Toxic leadership often causes employee dissatisfaction, low productivity, interdepartmental conflict, stagnant innovation, and a high turnover rate.
Unfortunately, in many organizations toxic leaders are a painful but undeniable reality. With their destructive behavior patterns and dysfunctional interactions, they create a disillusioned and demotivated workforce.
So how do you spot a toxic leader? Here are some of their common characteristics.
- Unrealistic expectations
Toxic leaders are notorious for setting objectives that are unfair and unrealistic. His subordinates struggle with unachievable goals, and get demoralized. Workload piles up, and he sets the company up to fail.
- Arrogant
Toxic leaders are very boastful and arrogant. They think that they are always right, and expect others to accept their word as gospel truth. They extend no help to others, and they hate it when someone else dares to correct them, especially if that someone is a subordinate.
- Autocratic
A toxic boss does not want any opinion other than his own to be heard. He expects others to quietly follow his every direction, without ever questioning him. A toxic boss often fancies himself the top dog or a self-styled king, and his behavior is often reflective of that. Employees are his minions, lesser beings who exist only to do his bidding.
- Irritable
Perhaps not surprisingly, toxic leaders also come across as highly irritable. They do want to be bothered for anything. Since they are not open to other ideas from anyone else, they despise being asked questions and avoid it as much as possible. Under a toxic leader, the organization becomes stunted because of the lack of innovative and free-flowing ideas.
- Maladjusted
Beneath the tough and arrogant veneer of a toxic boss is an ill-tempered child who is mortified of change. They are highly inflexible, and take changes very hard. The toxic boss is likely to be the most vehement opponent of any changes in the organization.
- Lack of confidence
Though they act supremely confident, a toxic leader has no confidence in himself. Consequently, he also finds it extremely difficult to trust his subordinates. Because of this lack of confidence, tough problems are often ignored or swept under the carpet.
- Incompetent
A toxic leader may think that he is the best, but he is incompetent and may often struggle to make even the most commonsensical decisions, or do the simplest of tasks. His sense of importance and usefulness only comes from criticising others, and making them out to be less than him.
- Hierarchical
Without the rigid structure of hierarchy, toxic leadership will wither and die. If you’re under a toxic leader, you will often feel the pressure of the corporate power structure above you. A toxic leader is adept at controlling his team members using hierarchy and seniority.
If you recognize any of these signs in yourself, you could possibly be a toxic leader who leads a group of dissatisfied and demotivated employees. If so, take the necessary steps for a sincere change to improve yourself as a leader and as a person.