Dr. Bill Howatt, Founder and CEO Howatt HR.
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Before I entered the human resources field, I started my career working in corrections as a youth worker. Eventually, I got into forensic psychology, where I provided expert opinions to the courts on whether lawbreakers would re-offend or whether a violent offender was well enough to stand trial. During my 10 years in corrections, I developed several valuable skills that have transferred to my current career, such as assessment, interview and observation skills.
As an HR consultant working with executives, my skill set has helped me detect leaders who lack empathy and compassion for others and how to lead them. I've encountered many individuals who don't embody the spirit of true leadership. Here are some of my insights on what employers can do to prevent hiring toxic leaders, deter leaders from becoming toxic leaders and manage risk.
What is a toxic leader?
When given a team, division or organization to manage, leaders who exhibit toxic behaviors are ones who abuse their authority. They have no regard for the leader-employee relationship and often hyper-focus on what they deem important, causing things to get much worse than when they started.
Toxic leaders may have little to no regard for how their attitudes negatively impact their reports’ experience or motivation, coming off as arrogant, controlling or unapproachable. Their bullishness when it comes to their own priorities makes it difficult for their team members to voice concerns or, ultimately, trust them.
A common behavior of toxic leaders is manipulating others so they question their self-worth, reality and experiences. This could involve lying about or denying things they've said (even when it's in writing), downplaying meaning in conversations or refusing to be held accountable for their actions.
Ultimately, these kinds of leaders prevent the work environment from being psychologically safe and inclusive. Team members feel uncomfortable and fearful in their presence, which can erode their self-esteem and increase their levels of stress and mental harm. Large-scale fallout can manifest like the reported employee mistreatment at Amazon or gender discrimination at Uber. In a 2022 poll by The Muse, 64% of respondents said they experienced a toxic work environment, and 44% blamed leadership. But too often, workers remain in these situations due to financial instability, the feeling that they won't find a better job or fear of how their leader may retaliate.
How To Avoid A Damaged Workplace Culture
Employees’ experience directly impacts their ability to flourish. In my experience, employees who trust their leaders are more likely to flourish and feel a sense of purpose. Here are a few strategies to help ensure the leaders in your organization are fostering a healthy, safe culture.
• Define leadership standards and behaviors. Ensure leaders are clear on their expectations, such as how frequently they should meet with employees or provide feedback. They must have strong performance management, career development and mentoring skills and foundational behaviors and habits, such as acknowledging and encouraging good work and dealing with conflict peacefully. Anchor the point that your organization is not on board with command-and-control leadership.
• Frame your values as nonnegotiable. Make it clear that the company values (e.g., team, people, integrity) aren't mere suggestions for behavior. They're the minimum standard, and all leaders are expected to be role models.
• Hire smart. Ensure your hiring team can properly screen for toxic leadership tendencies. Leverage evidence-based practices and standardized interview processes. You might even want to engage with experts trained in analyzing behavior.
• Provide leaders with feedback. Regularly use 360s and peer observations to generate feedback on leaders’ performance. Make this a part of continuous improvement because there's no such thing as perfection—only learning and growth.
• Monitor culture. Leverage employee engagement through data collection efforts like assessments, listening tour focus groups and exit and stay interviews. Using a human resources information system and tracking information like claims data can help you keep a pulse on the culture. This needs to be core work and a part of how business operates.
• Remove toxic leaders quickly. If there are signs of integrity gaps, set the standard that your culture and team will always trump one person winning in the long term. But if you can't correct bullying or toxic behavior, have no tolerance and remove those individuals from the organization.
Identifying and addressing toxic leadership is paramount for fostering safe and inclusive work environments. By implementing measures like clear leadership standards, evidence-based hiring practices and swift removal of toxic individuals, organizations can cultivate cultures that prioritize employee well-being and productivity.
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