Transforming Toxic Leaders
By Alan Goldman
()
About this ebook
Unlike other books written on "toxic leaders," this book takes issue with the predominant view that "toxic leaders are bad" and destructive to their companies. Rather, the author argues that even highly productive leaders have some toxic qualities central to their success story. The book redirects the conversation about toxicity in a more productive direction, as toxic leaders are not just viewed as villains and liabilities, but are also considered as potential assets, innovators, and rebels.
Working on the premise that "toxicity is a fact of company life," the book provides organizations with a model and blueprint on the advantages to be gained from skillful anticipation, control, and handling of troubled and difficult leaders. In contrast to dysfunctional organizations that ignore toxicity or dwell on the perceived destructive impact of toxic leaders, successful companies come up with resourceful, innovative strategies for turning seeming deficits into opportunities.
Related to Transforming Toxic Leaders
Related ebooks
Creating Introvert-Friendly Workplaces: How to Unleash Everyone’s Talent and Performance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCultural Clarity: UNDERSTANDING AND DEVELOPING YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuiet Leader, Loud Results: How Quiet Leaders Drive Outcomes that Speak for Themselves Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Office is Dead, Now What?: A Post-Pandemic Field Guide for Leadership Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndustrial And Organizational Psychology A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHR Compliance A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIt's Personal, Not Personnel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsASAE Handbook of Professional Practices in Association Management Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dictionary of Human Resources and Employment Law Acronyms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 5 Disciplines of Inclusive Organizations: How Diverse and Equitable Enterprises Will Transform the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Currency of Kindness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Instructor Excellence: Mastering the Delivery of Training Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Neurodiversity in the Workplace: Understand how to Support and Empower your staff who are neurodiverse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRadical: Fighting to Put Students First Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Get the Raise You Want in 90 Days or Less: A Step-by-step Plan for Making It Happen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAbbreviations Quick Starts Workbook, Grades 4 - 12 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Good Ones: Ten Crucial Qualities of High-Character Employees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNeeds assessment A Complete Guide - 2019 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding a Culture of Responsibility: How to Raise - And Reinforce - The Five Pillars of a Responsible Organization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpirit Within Club 2: Spirit Within Club, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Relationships: Let’s Talk About the Business of Humans. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClinical Orthopedics in Ayurveda: Cases and Insights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Together Teammate: Build Strong Systems, Make the Work Manageable, and Stay Organized Behind the Scenes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCHIEFS Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Resources Management A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Handbook for Closet Conservatives: How to Succeed in Today’S Liberal World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerformance Appraisals & Feedback for Absolute Beginners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking Taboo: Making the Most of Polarizing Discussions at Work Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerformance Consulting: Applying Performance Improvement in Human Resource Development Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Leadership For You
The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robert's Rules of Order: The Original Manual for Assembly Rules, Business Etiquette, and Conduct Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Intelligent Investor, Rev. Ed: The Definitive Book on Value Investing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 15th Anniversary Infographics Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 360 Degree Leader Workbook: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Communicating at Work Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook: Revised and Updated Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emotional Intelligence Habits Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves: Cheat Sheet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overcoming Impossible: Learn to Lead, Build a Team, and Catapult Your Business to Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, 20th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else's Maze Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Transforming Toxic Leaders
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Transforming Toxic Leaders - Alan Goldman
Continuum
1
Demagogue to Dialogue
Bentley Pacific Engineering and North Country Solutions
Like the two-faced Roman god, Janus, the leader must always be looking both inwards and outwards, a difficult position . . . concentrating solely on one or the other is a more comfortable position but it undermines the role of the leader, and thus the strength of the institution’s representation in the outer world.
—A. Obholzer, The Unconscious at Work
DYSFUNCTIONAL DOWNSIZING INC.: BENTLEY PACIFIC
Late one Friday afternoon as engineers and staff were about to depart for the weekend, an e-mail terminating 273 employees suddenly appeared on monitors throughout Bentley Pacific Engineering, a firm based in Seattle, Washington. (As noted in the Introduction, I have changed the names of companies and individuals throughout the book to maintain client confidentiality and personal privacy.) Shock waves of disbelief welled up as deeply committed aerospace designers and administrative assistants attempted to grasp the full brunt of their dismissals. They were to pack up their belongings and move out of their offices before the start of the next workweek. The traumatic effect of the downsizing extended beyond those terminated to the remaining employees, who assumed that they would be next. Their colleagues had been the victims of a sudden act of organizational sabotage. How could they ever trust leadership again?
Monday afternoon in a hastily called meeting, Bentley CEO Cal Burton gave an obligatory, politically correct speech hitting on all of the cost-containment buttons. Burton’s speech was an act of shallow showmanship, pure cliché, and only served to deepen his employees’ wounds and mistrust. It was all about bottom lines, with no discussion of human capital or recognition of the emotion of his audience. Immediately following the CEO’s talk, twelve managers informed members of their respective divisions that the downsizing was still in progress, with further cuts inevitable. Meanwhile, both professionals and staff received an edict that they would be expected to rise to the occasion and perform at 125 to 150 percent of their usual levels in an effort to make up for the losses in productivity anticipated after the downsizing.
When the new rules of the game were questioned by angry and traumatized engineers, divisional managers were directed by CEO Burton to put down any rebellion by whatever means necessary. A number of verbal altercations occurred throughout the company, highlighted by a screaming and pushing match involving Burton and three remaining engineers from the R&D division. Grievances were filed against the CEO, with litigation pending. Further investigation involving consultation with the Bentley employee assistance program (EAP) director and an external management consulting group yielded that Burton was an easily agitated man for whom tantrum-style outbursts were not uncommon. His anger issues and temper resulted in increasingly turbulent behavior in the workplace.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE CEO
The consultants collectively considered whether Burton’s individual behavioral patterns could be untangled and separated from the painful realities of a downsizing. Perhaps the downsizing was the true cause of all the Bentley conflict and agony? Clearly, companywide policies and unpopular but necessary fiscal decisions were major drivers of a dysfunctional system. Discussions determined that since there was no way of neatly separating a leader from the organizational system it made good sense to isolate Burton as the lowest-hanging fruit in this corporate debacle. All roads appeared to lead back to Burton. Why not determine whether he was the nexus of the crisis and do something about it?
After much deliberation, the Huntington-Bolger Management Consulting Group in conjunction with the Bentley EAP concluded that Burton’s issues required more in-depth mental and emotional assessment, and he was referred to Dr. Alexander Silverton, a leadership coach with a unique combination of management and clinical psychology expertise. Faced with a growing avalanche of grievances and lawsuits, both Bentley Pacific and the Huntington-Bolger Group were hopeful that individual leadership coaching and psychological assessment of Burton could yield insights into some companywide damage control. After three weeks of extensive coaching and assessment, Dr. Silverton reached a DSM IV-TR diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder (American Psychiatric Association 2000, pp. 663–67; also see glossary). Apparently, Burton had both a brilliant and a dark history as a leader who was a mover and shaker, a CEO who was able to pull a company out of the dumps and into almost overnight profitability—but at the serious cost of demeaning and traumatizing scores of subordinates. With a fiercely hierarchical and authoritarian leadership style, Burton had a reputation as a mercenary and soldier of fortune; he had served as a downsizing shark
and a one-man cost-containment militia
for five companies over the previous twelve years. Curiously, Burton’s predisposition to extreme, exaggerated, and repetitive public displays of anger had been painfully apparent to a growing number of colleagues at Bentley Pacific, but the official diagnosis was not revealed to the company by Dr. Silverton. Although Dr. Silverton was hired by Bentley Pacific via a referral, Burton was legally protected by confidentiality and privileged communication provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act as it applies to psychological and psychiatric diagnoses.
Burton continued with his leadership coach and eventually resumed his full-time duties as Bentley’s practicing CEO. Since Dr. Silverton did not diagnose Burton as being either a danger to self (DTS) or a danger to others (DTO), he was given clearance to resume his duties as CEO, pending additional and ongoing