We know that toxic leadership is a direct cause of work-related anxiety and as such reduces productivity in the workplace. It can cost organisations £10,000 per employee due to reduced work capacity and time off with stress.
Our industry experts are delivering a multitude of leadership, governance & coaching courses, with core aspects focusing on toxic leadership, how to recognise the signs, and how to change culture.
One of our tutors, Alex Firmin MSc is an Occupational Psychologist and a highly experienced educational consultant and coach. Holding an ILM 7 Coaching qualification, a PGCE and two master’s degrees; Educational Innovation and Occupational Psychology.
As well as teaching about the subject, Alex has written in depth about Toxic Leadership.
“Recent studies revealed that working for toxic bosses not only affects you professionally & personally, but it can also have a heavy impact on mental health and wellbeing. Working for a toxic leader can undermine your confidence, cause you anxiety and distress, and if left unaddressed, lead to longer term effects IE: Clinical Depression.”
Toxic Leadership is becoming an increasingly common term used for describing leaders who engage in constant negative behaviours, that if systematic and repeated, can cause psychological harm to affected individuals. Toxic behaviours include, but aren’t limited to, manipulating, micromanaging, intimidating and engaging in unethical/abusive behaviours.
Evidence suggests that employees who experienced high levels of abuse tend to disengage and use avoidance tactics such as intentionally double-booking to avoid meetings. With very few incidents being reported or recorded.
We want to help organisations to be equipped to deal with toxic leadership, which tends to be more of an issue with owner-managed businesses. Our courses, and tutor articles are designed to help employees identify toxic leadership and how to work through it.
Here are just some of the points we ask leaders to consider:
- Deliver proactive training programmes, focusing on effective coping strategies.
- Offer support to equip employees with courage and resilience to address toxic leaders.
- Examine how successful leadership & success is measure, as focusing on short-term goals can lead to toxic leadership.
And for affected individuals, a few coping strategies could include:
- Simply standing your ground and taking the rational approach to the incident(s).
- Creating formal supporting structures.
- Maintaining a journal to show a clear, concise account of the issues.
- And as a very last resort, leave the organisation. For the sake of your long-term mental health.
Most people affected by toxic leaders don’t have any solutions for coping effectively with abusive supervision. Many use emotion-focused strategies as they feel powerless in preventing on-going issues.
Toxic Leadership & culture is an active issue in some organisations, but with effective coaching & leadership skills leaders can extract the best from their team and drive the teams overall success.
If you wish to find out more about any of our Leadership or Coaching courses, visit www.inpd.co.uk or call us on 0161 509 2999.
