5 Toxic Leadership Traits and How to Overcome Them

A male boss learns how to avoid being a toxic leader while standing in front of a presentation.

As a leader, creating a healthy, functional work environment is essential to your team’s success, and it often starts with your behavior. It’s important to regularly self-reflect so you can avoid being a toxic leader that damages a team’s potential.

Perhaps you view a toxic leader as someone who is arrogant, narcissistic, or discriminates against their employees. But toxic behavior isn’t always so obvious. Sometimes, toxic traits are indirect and difficult to detect. They can creep into your behaviors without you realizing it and slowly cause conflict and hurt within your team.

Here are five less obvious toxic traits and how to overcome them.

1. Insecurity.

While personal insecurity may not seem like it will affect others, it can quickly become damaging to your team. An insecure leader lacks confidence in their calling and abilities, which may lead to jealousy, competitive behavior or projecting insecurity onto others. Or, they may fear that they don’t belong in their leadership position, causing them to overcompensate by being domineering and authoritarian.

It takes time to overcome insecurity, but there are things you can do to combat it like practicing self-care, keeping a gratitude journal or working through your low self-esteem with a counselor.

Developing your hobbies and passions also helps you build confidence by giving you a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

2. Inconsistency.

Inconsistent communication can create stress and anxiety in your team as they struggle to meet unclear or ever-changing expectations. It’s important to communicate clearly, consistently and thoroughly with everyone on your team to avoid causing unnecessary strain and confusion.

Try writing down what you wish to communicate with your team, so when you go to meet with them, you’ll have all the details in front of you and ensure that everyone gets the same information. After you communicate what you need, invite your team to ask questions. If you change your mind about something later on, avoid being a toxic leader and own up to it. Refrain from blaming others for not knowing about the change. Remember, nobody can read your mind!

3. Micromanaging.

Nobody wants excessive progress checks or for their hard work to be constantly scrutinized, scrapped and redone by someone else. Micromanaging often stems from perfectionism and a lack of trust, and can cause hurt, conflict and anxiety within your team.

If you struggle with micromanaging, practice recognizing the people on your team and taking note of everybody’s strengths. Doing so will help remind you why your team members are in the position they are in, and help you trust them to get the job done. They may make mistakes, but instead of taking over and trying to fix everything yourself, communicate with them so they can correct the issue themselves and continue to grow.

Remember, micromanaging only gives you more work to do and more things to stress about, and prevents your team from utilizing their strengths and realizing their full potential.

4. Emphasizing hierarchy.

While you have worked hard to get to where you are today, never underestimate the people you lead — even those who are just starting out. Becoming obsessed with titles and hierarchy can be a very sticky trap for leaders to fall into and will lead to resentment within your team. This can include only getting feedback from people in high positions, constantly reminding your team who’s boss, or showing favoritism to friends, family and other leaders.

Instead of viewing people in terms of their position, seek the input of everyone, even those with little experience or status. Set boundaries with your friends, letting them know that they shouldn’t expect special treatment. Try getting to know someone who is less experienced or new to your team. You might learn something valuable from them.

5. Lack of accountability.

As you go about your day leading others, you need to stop and ask yourself: ‘Who is leading me?’ Not having any leadership or accountability in your life can be extremely dangerous. Without having people who are honest with you when you’ve done something wrong or who encourage you to do the right thing, you’re more likely to fall into negative habits or be overcome by pride.

So many great leaders have fallen due to a lack of accountability. Instead of shying away from it, regularly talk to a close friend or mentor and ask them to be honest with you, challenge you and pray for you. Be open-minded and ready to have a change of heart. It takes a lot of humility to remain accountable, but the growth that comes from it is well worth it.

Once you can recognize your toxic traits, you’ll be more prepared to overcome them. It can also help you assess your relationships and your workplace, and know how to avoid being a toxic leader, ultimately creating a healthier environment for everyone on your team.

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