12 Toxic Behaviors to Avoid at all Cost
You can do many things right, but one destructive behavior pollutes them all.
Toxic behaviors poison teams.
Eliminating destructive behaviors lifts your potential.
Keep the good. Jettison the bad.
12 Toxic Behaviors You Must Avoid:
- Rushing around with your hair on fire.
- Gossiping and shading the truth.
- Tolerating high performers who act like jerks.
- Failing to deal with poor performance.
- Making self-serving decisions.
- Avoiding tough issues.
- Giving yourself special privileges.
- Ignoring morale.
- Throwing people into situations without preparation.
- Pushing, pushing, pushing.
- Overmanaging.
- Promising more than you deliver.
My personal favorite: Focusing on what’s wrong and minimizing what’s right.
Identify your toxicity:
- Self-Audit: Honestly reflect on your impact. List behaviors that repeatedly cause tension, resistance, or disengagement.
- Feedback: Seek feedback from trusted colleagues, mentors, or team members. Ask for one behavior that’s holding you back.
- Patterns: Notice situations where you consistently feel frustrated or where others regularly react defensively.
- Blind Spots: Pay attention to criticisms you quickly dismiss.
- Gut Check: Reflect on times you feel uncomfortable, stressed, or defensive. Toxic behaviors huddle there.
Service expands when toxic behaviors shrink.
List the three most toxic behaviors based on your experience.
Project: Name one behavior holding you back. Decide on one concrete action to eliminate it.
8 Traits of Toxic Leadership to Avoid | Psychology Today
number 3 and 4 –
getting reeling in those high performers that believe they are untouchable and can do what they please.
Ignoring poor performers. either create a plan to help them improve or release them.
Thanks James. The hardest part of dealing with issues is getting started. We we don’t it’s demoralizing to others and stressful for us.
“Tolerating high performers who act like jerks.” I have seen this on many occasions – though I have noticed eventually a new supervisor comes in that isn’t willing to put up with the bad behavior. What else can explain how the University of Indiana put up with Bobby Knight for so long? He won basketball games and put the university on the proverbial map, but Knight extracted a huge cost with his aggressive and bullying behavior. The sports world has an embarrassing record of putting up with intolerable behaviors all for the sake of winning games. Some of this can be hidden a bit in the workplace. ESPN isn’t showing up to your building to do a documentary on whether the juice is worth the squeeze of a particular employee. Perhaps because of that, leaders need to be even more vigilant.
It’s March Madness here! Bringing up basketball is perfect. March is the best month of the year. The coach is a dictator in many sports. Sometimes it goes too far. As you say, when it works, it’s tolerated. When the team loses, coaches are let go. It’s all about winning.
I also find it is hard to tell the root of toxicity sometimes. Those causing the problems can be super sweet and helpful to your face but stirring trouble in the background. It is so important to sit back and watch the situation and then react one on one so that the core issues are addressed with the right people.
It’s so frustrating to do your best and find out that someone has been gossiping and backstabbing. One thing I learned about these people is they don’t feel bad when they do it. They feel good. Setting the culture norm of going directly to the person you have an issue with helps. But occasionally you end up with an evil person.
Related to #4: Ignoring high performers. All you give them is the feedback of “Good job” and then more work since they can handle it. And then you wonder why they are burning out.
Wonderful addition, Jennifer. Leaders often spend way too much time with poor performers. You nailed a bit one.
Wow! This is a great framework to identify our own behaviors that could use adjustments. I will reflect on this in my next journaling session later today. Thanks for this!
Thanks for stopping in today, Kenlie. I wish you well as you explore possible points of toxicity. Cheers
PS You aren’t alone. Others have let me know they see a bit of themselves on the list.
PSS congratulations on practicing journaling.
“Reflect on times you feel uncomfortable, stressed, or defensive. Toxic behaviors huddle there.” BAM. In those places, I’m either the source, or the receiver, or both.
It seems that some emotions distract us from realities. Thanks for jumping in today, Robert.