Toxic Leadership

I am sitting at a coffee shop and thinking about the research I have reviewed which describes toxic leaders’ behaviour, and how we need to pay attention to the followers of these leaders. The questions are what do we know about their response and why do followers continue to deny or openly support this toxic, debilitating leadership behaviour? We know that this creates a toxic organizational ecology. This is an area that needs greater focus regarding followers who need to liberate themselves from this toxicity. It is too easy to blame the leader without addressing why followers, follow! I strongly suggest that this is something that has infused our organizations, our politics, our communities. The point that I am making is beware, as we collude to create those toxic leaders. I suggest that we support them, and often we feel we need them. So what is this allure of toxic leadership? And my interest is how do we collaborate with leaders to become compassionate, wise and kind to their followers as they meet organizational needs.