Toxic Leadership: Destructive Characteristics & Examples

What makes a great leader? A transformational leader can see the opportunities in turmoil and inspire people to follow them to a better future. This has never been more important than in our current world situation. Managing employee productivity and performance needs to be combined with working remotely and overcoming new problems, all while maintaining psychological health, positive morale, and a strong organizational culture.

An incompetent leader, on the other hand, leaves you to deal with everything alone or is so busy putting out fires they aren’t available to lead. Even worse than that, however, is a destructive or toxic leader. These individuals see only the potential for self-enhancement, exploiting others to maximize their gain without any regard to the emotional damage they might cause.

Cleary, toxic leadership styles need to be avoided at all costs. What causes these negative leadership patterns? And how can you be aware of these and avoid hiring this type of leader? In addition to answering these questions, we’ll also look at four clues that will help you identify a toxic leader.