Many MBB consultants believe that toxic leaders are inherently bad people. But often it’s just a symptom, not a root cause. This post is for those who want to prevent their leaders from becoming toxic
Reading this makes me feel grateful (privileged? lucky?) to have avoided consulting experiences and companies where "toxicity is the norm".
Of course I've seen, and experienced my own, fair share of stress on-shared to others in the form of impatience, rolled eyes, overly strong words, or just cold-shoulder treatment. The resulting 3am wake-up rituals, poor health habits, negative impacts on loved ones… are all things we learn to recognise and, over time, manage.
You talk about the help and guidance you provide for up-and-coming consultants dealing with this type of pressure cascading from others.
But what more can be done to raise awareness and stop accepting (let alone rewarding) the type of "toxic" behaviours you refer to?
It's one thing to help people deal with being a punching bag.
It's a whole different thing to stop the punches in the first place.
Yes, you are right, bad actors need to be discouraged from being toxic.
But as my experience shows, sometimes toxicity is a relative term. What is toxic for one person, it's incompetence to another. And it's really subjective and hard to regulate.
Realistically, I can't change all people in power, and I don't want to, to be completely honest. But I can help a few individuals who want to succeed in this imperfect world. And that's what I am helping my clients with.
"Toxicity" does indeed mean different things to different people. Along with its alliterative friends "triggering" and "trauma", I try as much as possible to avoid using them in professional contexts.
And that’s before you go into how they used to mean very different things only a decade or so ago…
Reading this makes me feel grateful (privileged? lucky?) to have avoided consulting experiences and companies where "toxicity is the norm".
Of course I've seen, and experienced my own, fair share of stress on-shared to others in the form of impatience, rolled eyes, overly strong words, or just cold-shoulder treatment. The resulting 3am wake-up rituals, poor health habits, negative impacts on loved ones… are all things we learn to recognise and, over time, manage.
You talk about the help and guidance you provide for up-and-coming consultants dealing with this type of pressure cascading from others.
But what more can be done to raise awareness and stop accepting (let alone rewarding) the type of "toxic" behaviours you refer to?
It's one thing to help people deal with being a punching bag.
It's a whole different thing to stop the punches in the first place.
Thank you, Claire, very interesting perspective.
Yes, you are right, bad actors need to be discouraged from being toxic.
But as my experience shows, sometimes toxicity is a relative term. What is toxic for one person, it's incompetence to another. And it's really subjective and hard to regulate.
Realistically, I can't change all people in power, and I don't want to, to be completely honest. But I can help a few individuals who want to succeed in this imperfect world. And that's what I am helping my clients with.
"Toxicity" does indeed mean different things to different people. Along with its alliterative friends "triggering" and "trauma", I try as much as possible to avoid using them in professional contexts.
And that’s before you go into how they used to mean very different things only a decade or so ago…