“The culture of an organization is not something that depends on HR but on the CEO”, Tom Peters said (author of “In Search of Excellence”, “The Excellence Dividend”)
I have seen many different organizations in my 21 years of experience in the business sector, having worked with multinational companies, in various phases of their existence. I have seen them grow, thrive and decay. Certainly, there are a lot of factors at play that can influence success or failure for a company. However, I am going to refer to the way an organizational leader can take their people and their accomplishments sky high or into the abyss.
They say that no one goes to work in the morning with bad intentions – everyone is there to get something done. The higher our position on the organization chart, the stronger our impact and influence on people around us; and so, we are constantly in the spotlight and on people’s radar – what we say, the way we say it, what we do not say, how we behave, analyse and walk.
Top management positions come with great responsibility, a large amount of stress and a certain feeling of loneliness around you.
Numerous factors influence a leader to the point where they are toxic to the organization:
- The stakeholders are diverse, exerting a lot of pressure
- The ultimate responsibility of results is theirs
- They represent the company in front of authorities, they carry the responsibility of everything that happens in the company (workplace accidents, strikes, etc are just some of the sensitive situations they must face)
- Their behaviour should adapt to investors, shareholders, and their teams
- Family time suffers as well, which is yet another pressure built on top of the others
I have worked with organizations for many years and I can tell you that there were instances where I could tell whether the CEO of the company was there or not – sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse, with fear, suspicion, internal competition and distrust looming in the air. I had the “luxury” of working as a tool unaffected by any interests. You may think these are empty words, however, you can tell when the environment is psychologically safe or when it is toxic. There are many organizations in the first category. Imagine the company as an orchestra – made of people, various instruments coming together to form a concert. The tone and rhythm are set by the conductor. Now, think about the difference between Leonard Bernstein (who lived music, was in the flow when he was conducting, and the same can be said for the members of the orchestra) and Riccardo Muti (directive, punitive, with no empathy, and distant). They both had results, but in different ways, and as for the people around them: some bloomed, and some withered.
I often hear organization leaders saying that people are not involved enough, they do not speak up their mind, they do not support their points of view, they do not have courage. Culturally speaking, Romanians are not that assertive, always keeping themselves at a distance from authority. However, when the leader of a company is aggressive, toxic, seeking full control over everything, with little trust in themselves or others, then the weaknesses within ourselves start to surface.
It is challenging to create a culture where people have a “healthy” lack of respect towards the leader. What I mean by this is for them to have the power and the environment to state their opinions in an assertive way, and to come up with new perspectives.
Unfortunately, our lust to be the best, to always be in the spotlight, to control everything around us, the low self-esteem, the inflated self-importance, the incapacity to manage daily pressures, all these things shed light on the worst side of people.
At one point I worked for an American organization. One of our colleagues (who was friendly, calm, and collaborated well with all of us) became our team leader. Suddenly, she turned domineering, controlling us excessively, behaving abruptly, ready to scold us without any reason. It was the first time I experienced what power can do to people.
Lord Acton said once: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Previously, Aristotle had said that power shows a person’s true colours.
Excessive narcissism is another trait I noticed in some leaders. Certainly, a bit of narcissism doesn’t hurt, especially for our self-esteem; but taken in substantial amounts it makes people toxic.
I know people who became extremely ill due to the toxicity of their head. The question arises why people choose to stay in such an environment, where they suffer daily, are undermined year after year, and badly treated. It might be because of a secondary gain they are not aware of.
