Toxic Leadership...let's start the change...

I could write (and talk!) for hours on the benefits of wellbeing and balance at work. I could talk to you about positive psychology and psychological capital, the benefits of using a strengths-based approach in both recruitment (strengths based profiling) and development (strength and motivations based profiling) of our employees, contributing to this sense of well being and ‘being in the right place’ but today, I’m going to follow on from my previous 2 posts on toxic leadership, and share my thoughts on how we can start to make a change in this area.

In my last post on the effects of toxic leadership, I illustrated some of the affects, which also hinted at the longer-term effects on wellbeing…they are all intrinsically linked but I will leave wellbeing and strengths-based development for a future post…for now, let’s talk about toxic leadership and how we can start to nudge the change…

As always, all thoughts are my own that have been created from both research and experiences in this area – I welcome comments, adds and thoughts as my posts on this topic in particular are always created with the intent to start these harder conversations and spark curiosity on how you could use the knowledge in your own settings…

You will see from my whiteboard walkthrough visual that I believe we can start with an interconnected triangle approach…culture, recruitment, support and let me explain why…

Culture

I was recently on a podcast, discussing my thoughts on leadership being the cornerstone for culture…and of course, I was asked what I thought ‘culture’ is. I believe that ‘culture’ is an umbrella term to cover social behaviours, institutions, customs, beliefs, and habits – it is the intangible aspects of a group’s social life, whether that be at work or within the groups you hang out with.

For an organisation, it’s the ‘feel’ – let me give you an example. Have you ever applied for a job, and it sounds AMAZING, you can’t wait to start, and you are already planning what your future career path may look like within this company. And then you start. And it’s just not the same. The culture expectations in that psychological contract that starts well before recruitment (company website, job advert etc) just isn’t the reality within the company…and you then have a choice, do you stay and hope that as you peel back the layers you will see a glimpse of what was promised? Or do you cut ties and leave? I’ll leave that one with you, but a quick turnover is one of the consequences of getting this alignment wrong…

So, how does knowing this help with preventing toxic leadership? I can’t think of a single company that purposefully creates a toxic culture, but I’ll ask you this…what is your organisation’s culture? Can you talk about it or write it down? More importantly, can you think of examples where you can see it in action? For example, a company that prides itself on having a culture which supports sustainability – do they live that value? Do they still have 1 time use plastic? Do they recycle? Do they use their CSR days to help in this area?

As an organisation, the first step to preventing toxic leadership is thoroughly understanding what culture you want and then strongly embedding it into every facet of the company. Live it, breathe it, and make damn sure that the behaviours expected are role modelled by everyone, not just those in the senior leadership positions. Make it so that something that is out of alignment with the values and culture sticks out like a sore thumb – and give everyone the ‘permission’ to highlight when this happens. I’m not talking about constructive dissent or having a different opinion and voicing it, I’m talking about those deep, foundational core values that should run through the company and be embodied by the employees.

Make your company culture something that anyone within the business could talk about with actual examples of where it is seen and who actively live those values in their everyday work life. Make it something to be proud of and highlight it when you can, in your meetings, your performance management, your away days…

By doing this alignment exercise, you may find a few surprises - your values and the behaviours may not be in sync…but, which need changing? It’s important for companies to reassess their values at intervals – it may not even be that they need changing, it may be that there are values you want to add (Amazon have 14!), or, due to a change in company direction, there may need to be a change in priorities and realigning values may be part of this.

Once you know what your ideal culture is, conduct a culture assessment - have a look at the alignment between those individuals in your company and the values and culture you want to live as an organisation…and from there, start using your resources (training, feedback, check in conversations) to ensure the 2 become aligned…also be prepared to have those hard conversations as you might find that there are people who simply don’t fit your culture. Now, I’m a huge advocate of diversity of thought and bringing in different perspectives, approaches, and ideation. But this is different to having someone in your company who displays behaviours that sit so far out of your cultural alignment that it becomes a toxic environment. Decide on how you want to resolve this situation and do it consistently.

Also be aware that sometimes you might find dissonance between 2 people, but this is not necessarily toxic leadership – it could be that they don’t know how to communicate with each other, they could have completely different backgrounds and perspectives and they may actually ‘just’ need some mediation and group development work. Be wary of jumping to the ‘toxic leader’ assumption – do your due diligence first.

Recruitment

Once you know what your culture looks like and are content that those within the company are living those values under that culture ‘umbrella’, how do you prevent any toxicity creeping in?

I’ve written ‘recruitment’ but let’s look at it from both sides, as this is a question included in one of the comments on my post – how do we know as an interviewee that this is not a toxic culture?

For the organisation:

-?????????Have a good look at how you recruit.

Look at your job adverts, look at the language, do some testing with those within the company – do they recognise the organisation from how the advert is worded? Is it a true representation of what the culture is? This is your first line of defence against attracting those with toxic traits – be clear about the behaviours expected within your company and give examples where you can – be very clear what is and what is not acceptable behaviour.

-?????????Revisit what you are asking for in a job advert and later in job interviews.

Do you ask for evidence of results? Probably. Do you ask how they got these results? Possibly not. Because a toxic leader WILL get results. But they will do it through intimidation, fear and manipulation. And if, like we discussed in some of the comments within the previous posts, their ‘big’ boss is purely results orientated, then the ‘how’ won’t matter, and he will get results driven evidence on his CV and glowing references. The interview is your time to ask the ‘how’. Try the question, ‘if we asked your team, how would they describe you?’. Watch the body language and listen carefully to the words they use, and in what order – do they talk about being results focussed, driven and always pushing the team ‘to be their best’ – ask them what this means to them…because it may not be from a wellbeing or development point of view, it may simply mean, ‘I make sure they get the work done’…and, yes, you know my next question, ‘how’ did they do that?

-?????????Strengths Vs Recruitment.

I know, I said I wouldn’t go there but I think this one is important when you are trying to weed out those who could potentially be toxic to your culture and organisation.

Quite often, in traditional recruitment, we look for experience. We ask the question, ‘tell me a time when’, and often this is based around when you had to hit deadlines (results driven), when you had to be adaptable to change, when you had to think quickly…etc etc (for clarity, I have been on both sides of these questions, as both interviewer and interviewee). Now, I’m not saying these are bad questions…but, when we ask for experience, we shut down a huge group of people who just simply don’t have it. They could be changing careers and don’t have that specific experience but have a number of transferable skill sets, they could have been in education until recently and have all the drive and enthusiasm, but not the experience. Some of our automated recruitment processes (Applicant Tracking Systems) filter out these candidates…imagine the potential skills we are missing…

So, what if we recruited on strengths? This way, you can align your questions to your company values and culture and be specific…’what are your strengths?’, ‘how do you use those strengths at work?’, ‘tell me how you approach leading a team when you have a deadline to meet’, ‘tell me, how do you develop your team?’, ‘how do you deal with hard conversations?’, ‘can you give me an example of a time you had to give feedback? How did you do it?’ ‘what’s the best thing about your team as a whole?’

And again, LISTEN to the answers, watch the body language…there’s asking the right questions and then there’s watching and listening to how someone answers them…and because you have done the work embedding your organisational culture, you will know….go with your gut feeling, no matter what the experience on paper is telling you, be brave, recruit those who you feel are aligned to that bigger picture vision.

For the individual:

Understand your own values and motivations. Yes, the paycheck can often be very enticing but try to really think ‘do my values align with what this company is telling me?’

In one of my most recent coaching sessions (yes, coaches do have coaches!) I revisited some of my own values - I now have a post it note on my wall in front of my computer, it says,

·????????Does this align with my values?

·????????If I say yes to this, will it prevent me from doing something else more aligned to my values?

·????????Is it valuable to me? (own development and pathway)

How important are these questions to you?

If it is possible, visit the company, speak to people – sit and watch the interactions – what behaviours are being displayed? Are people helping each other? Is there a ‘buzz’ that you feel you want to be a part of?

In an interview, think of questions that align with you values and how you want to live your life – work is a huge part of our lives, you deserve to be somewhere you can have balance and development. For example, I personally value somewhere I can keep learning and developing awareness from different perspectives so one of my questions would be ‘could you please tell me what the expected/supported development path is at this grade?’ also, I believe we learn so much from a diverse workforce but only if there is inclusion of all running along side it, ‘I’ve noticed from your website that you employ from really diverse backgrounds, could you please tell me about your inclusion policies?’

Specific to toxic leadership – ‘I’ve been reading about your company values - how do your company leaders display/role model these?’ and, ‘what support network is in place for the teams?’ – it should be more than just the leader of that team…

The real importance for me is understanding your own values. What are your non-negotiables? What have you put up with in the past that you want to guard against now? Write them down. Have them on a post it on the wall and look at them when you are applying for jobs. If the company’s culture is not aligned to what you want, decide if these elements are on your negotiable or non-negotiable list. And trust yourself. If the company has an amazing culture on paper, but they can’t answer these types of questions, then consider if this is really where you want to work.

Support:

I was going to write ‘education’, but I think it’s wider than that – this is not an exhaustive list – there are many things that can be put in place, but these are a starter for 10…

-?????????support to those leaders who are aware of some toxic traits sneaking in and want to change – this may include 360-degree feedback so that they gain that awareness, however, the appetite for giving this feedback will be grounded in whether there is psychological safety within the culture or even within the teams

-?????????support to those in early leadership roles to ensure that they know the behaviours expected in line with the culture, and also the consequences of toxicity

-?????????education (in many different forms) to the whole company on behaviours expected and an understanding on how the values of the company are there to benefit everyone

-?????????support to those who are concerned and want to speak up – how do they do this? What are the channels? If they speak to HR, where does that go? Speaking up and voicing concerns is linked to psychological safety – does you company have it? Is it role modelled? How does it show up day to day?

-?????????support in helping all employees understand their own values and alignment with the company

-?????????support in helping all employees become self-aware and understanding their own strengths and also actions and behaviours that may trigger them – self-awareness tools (I use Lumina Spark which can aid awareness and help highlight strengths)

-?????????support by facilitating hard conversations – either through training and immersive learning and/or by providing (external) mediators

-?????????a very visible and actionable leadership charter – something that all leaders within the company sign up to – can be used for performance management and learning/development pathways for each grade

This article highlights some of the areas where I believe we can start changing for the better by not allowing/enabling/facilitating toxic traits in leaders, and by leaders, I mean everyone. Everyone can lead and everyone can follow…

For anyone who would like to have further discussions or support in this area, be that recruitment, culture, or internal support, I work as a freelance consultant and coach in the area of leadership, culture and people operations so please do reach out and I am very happy to chat. I can be reached through LinkedIn or via my email address, [email protected]

Let’s start the change…