5 toxic leadership behaviors and how to address them

Written by Dan Hughes, Director of International R&D

The continuous competition for the best talent and the shift to hybrid or remote working models underlines the importance of the employee experience. While many people feel engaged, satisfied with their job, and fundamentally happy at work, Talogy’s international research study on leadership found some aspects of work that needed addressed. We found that four out of 10 employees did not report a good employee experience in their workplace. While many factors contribute to an employee’s overall job satisfaction, leaders play a major role in shaping the experience employees have at work. Positive relationships between a leader and their team members results in constructive outcomes such as improved employee engagement, high levels of psychological safety, and instilling a sense of trust. Alternatively, negative leadership can harm the employee experience by creating a toxic and stressful work environment. So, what is toxic leadership and how can organizations identify and address these behaviors to improve the employee experience?

What is toxic leadership?

Toxic leadership describes managers or those in leadership positions whose actions and behaviors at work negatively impact team morale and productivity, making the workplace stressful and unproductive. Toxic leaders not only create a harmful work environment for employees, but for the organization overall. Leaders have a major impact on the employee experience and well-being, so picking up on any signs of toxicity is critical and should be taken seriously and addressed accordingly.

The impact of toxic leaders on the employee experience

The climate that leaders create at work plays a key role in fostering a positive employee experience. Scientific evidence shows that the quality of a person’s relationship with their leader influences their motivation, job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and feelings of trust and empowerment. This leads to better job performance when individuals have positive, healthy relationships with their leaders and are more inclined to go beyond what is required or expected of them (organizational citizenship).

Toxic leaders have the opposite effect on the employee experience. Research studies show that destructive leadership is associated with employees feeling negative and unhappy at work. Those that exhibit toxic leadership behaviors can also harm performance and organizational commitment, as well as make people more likely to want to leave the organization.

5 toxic leadership behaviors to look out for

As part of our international research study, we asked 1,077 employees across 21 countries for their views regarding which toxic leadership behaviors they believed had the biggest impact on the employee experience. Specifically, we asked individuals to select their top five leadership behaviors that had the most negative impact on their own employee experience. Here are the five most frequently chosen toxic leadership behaviors across all employees surveyed:

1. Being aggressive, demeaning, or intimidating – 64%
2. Micromanaging or being over-controlling – 52%
3. Lying or being unethical – 43%
4. Playing internal politics and focusing on self-interest – 37%
5. Setting unrealistic goals or expectations – 36%

What are the signs of toxic leadership?

Toxic leadership behaviors can be challenging to detect, as they are often used subtly in a leader’s day-to-day interactions. To effectively identify and address toxic leaders, organizations should proactively monitor for signs of toxic leadership within their own teams.

Warning signs of toxic leadership in the workplace

1. Leaders who act aggressively create a climate of fear where employees are afraid to speak up and raise issues or concerns. This is bad for the organization because psychological safety at work is important for driving collaboration, creativity, and shared learning.
2. Micro-managing leaders are unwilling to delegate and empower their teams. They control all decisions and restrict employees’ freedom to choose the best approach to achieve predetermined goals. This reduces employees’ feelings of autonomy and in turn their intrinsic motivation.
3. Leaders who habitually lie and act unethically as well as focus on their own self-interests over the needs of their team destroy trust with employees. This leaves people on high alert and feeling constantly worried because they know their leader will not act in the team’s best interests.
4. Leaders who set unrealistic goals or expectations leave employees feeling as though they will never succeed. For goals to be motivating, they must be stretching but achievable. Unreachable goals reduce motivation and can lead to employees disengaging from what the organization is trying to achieve.

How to address toxic leadership

Below are five strategies that organizations can use to help them address the issue of toxic leadership behaviors and build a more positive, productive work environment:

• Start at the top: Building a positive climate at work begins at the top of the organization. Senior leaders need to act as role models for positive leadership, hold themselves accountable for their impact on others, and be receptive to feedback on their own behavior.
• Don’t ignore the signs: Organizations should pay close attention to signs of toxic leadership in the workplace, such as employees not speaking up about problems, underperforming teams, lack of collaboration, high attrition rates, and high levels of sickness absences.
• Ask employees often: Collect metrics and data analytics from teams regularly about their leader’s behavior and how the team is feeling, using tools such as leadership climate or engagement surveys and 360 feedback. Ensure that leaders receive actionable feedback about how they are doing so that they understand clearly where they need to improve.
• Call out bad behavior: Leaders need to create a culture where poor behavior is called out and addressed directly and promptly, rather than being avoided or tolerated. Individual leaders need to have the courage to raise these concerns if they see examples of toxic leadership by their peers, and organizations should support this.
• Develop leaders’ emotional intelligence: Emotionally intelligent leaders tend to adopt leadership styles that foster a positive employee experience (e.g., authentic leadership and servant leadership), resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction within their teams. Leaders can develop emotional intelligence by improving their self-awareness and awareness of others, as well as consciously managing their attitudes and behavior so they are being interpersonally effective.

Confronting toxic leadership for a healthier workplace

Learning how to address toxic leadership is essential for enhancing overall employee satisfaction within an organization. By proactively monitoring for the signs of toxic leadership behaviors, organizations can create a healthier more supportive workplace. Implementing these strategies not only aids in identifying toxic leaders but also in effectively mitigating their impact, contributing to the long-term success of the organization.