An Update on Toxic Leadership: When Team Members Volunteer to Fight Toxicity

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When Employees Volunteer to Fight Toxicity

© PatAhern_AdVision


The subject of toxic leadership is endless. I owe this update to Pat Ahern of AdVision  who brought up the issue of team, leadership and toxicity. Thanks, Pat for reminding me of the importance of this subject. Incidentally, concurrent circumstances made me rethink the leadership role in team growth. So, yes, toxic leadership can generate quite a toxic environment and harm team spirit in one way or another. As managers become enablers of resistance to change for fear of losing long-time employees, they have a tendency to become irrelevant themselves. Relevancy is not measured by tenure. It is about adaptability, agility, understanding of changed and evolving principles, practices and needs. As a side note, could irrelevancy also be linked to subordination? The terms that define subordination status could certainly impact leadership relevancy. In a way, one can be only as good as he/she is allowed to be. When it comes to leadership I think that not only self-relevancy but also adequacy of interventions matter. My article referring to Netflix and its approach to transformation reminds us that sometimes different steps are needed to move along and bring about change if capacities or mindsets become irrelevant. On the bright side, when employees come to you and voluntarily commit to fight negativity and toxicity in the workplace in your support, it tells you three things:
  1. You have an engaged, and potentially successful employee. You also have a team player. Think talent pipeline and succession planning. 
  2. You must have done something right. So, keep on building your strengths and don't be deterred by internal partners who cannot overcome old managerial practices. If you are the HRM, think coaching , and coaching. If it does not work, then maybe time to reassess?
  3.  Feel free to move forward, however/whatever your case could be . Break through!

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