Synopses & Reviews
"The day this person left our company is considered an annual holiday!"
This quote, taken from Kusy and Holloway's research on toxic personalities, echoes the frustration and confusion that come from working with or managing an extremely difficult person. Just one toxic person has the capacity to debilitate individuals, teams, and even organizations.
Toxic Workplace! is the first book to tackle the underlying systems issues that enable a toxic person to create a path of destruction in an organization, pervading others' thoughts and energies, even undermining their very sense of well-being. Based on all-new research with over 400 leaders, many from the Fortune 500 list, this book illustrates how to manage existing toxic behaviors, create norms that prevent the growth or regrowth of toxic environments, and ultimately design organizational communities of respectful engagement.
Kusy and Holloway's research reveals the warning signs that indicate a serious behavioral problem and identifies how this toxicity spreads in systems with long-term effects on organizational climate, even after the person has left. Their two-year, cutting-edge research study provides very specific actions that leaders need to take to reduce both the intensity and frequency of toxic personalities at work. No other book provides this menu of options from a systems perspective with practical relevance in real work situations.
You'll learn how to identify the toxic personality and describe the leader reactions and approaches that typically don't work. Toxic Workplace! provides hands-on approaches that work with research-based strategies at the individual, team, and organizational level.Toxic Workplace! will provide new insights on how leaders lead, how organizational cultures sustain themselves, and how teams deal with toxic personalities.
Synopsis
The systems antidote to "poison" personalities in the workplace
Most leaders have experienced the frustration and confusion of dealing with an extremely difficult person–an individual who debilitates individuals, teams, and even organizations. Based on the authors' two-year national research study of 500 leaders, Toxic Workplace! tackles the underlying systems issues that enable toxic people to create a path of destruction, often for a long time, at the cost of talent as well as productivity. The authors show the warning signs of a serious behavioral problem, how toxicity spreads, and ultimately its effects, providing very specific actions that leaders can take to reduce both the intensity and frequency of toxic personalities at work and create communities of respectful engagement.
Mitchell E. Kusy, PhD (San Francisco, CA), is an international management consultant, a Professor in the Ph.D. Program in Leadership & Change at Antioch University, and a 2005 Fulbright Scholar in International Organization Development. Elizabeth Holloway, PhD (Austin, TX), is a Professor in the PhD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a Diplomat in Counseling Psychology.
Synopsis
Praise for Toxic Workplace!"Toxic Workplace! describes how to identify and best work with toxic personalities. It also provides a systemic approach for creating a culture that's positive and respectful while improving the bottom line. Kusy and Holloway share how their national research translates into real-world practices in organizations. I endorse their practical, concrete approaches that will make a significant difference in organizations today and in the future."
—Gregg Steinhafel, president and CEO, Target Corporation
"Toxic Workplace! brings a rare and valuable view of one of the great challenges facing leaders in today's organizations. It is a significant guidebook to the healthy enterprise of the future, not only because of Kusy and Holloway's systems approach to dealing with toxic personalities, but also their unique practice of creating communities of respectful engagement. This book demonstrates how this impacts both organizational social responsibility and the bottom line."
—Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.; founding president and chairman of Leader to Leader Institute, formerly The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management
"Transforming the culture to support the strategy and mission is the real stuff of leadership. Toxic Workplace! gives you the research-based tools to identify and deal with the 'dark side' of this important dynamic. Read it and you will engage your organization in new, more authentic, and effective ways!"
—Kevin Cashman, author, Leadership from the Inside Out and senior partner, Korn/Ferry Leadership & Talent Consulting
About the Author
Mitchell Kusy, PhD, is a consultant and full professor in the graduate program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University. A 2005 Fulbright Scholar in international organization development, Dr. Kusy consults globally in strategic planning, leadership development, 360-degree feedback, organization development, and designing organizational communities of respectful engagement. He is a visiting professor at several universities internationally.
Elizabeth Holloway, PhD, is a consultant and full professor in the graduate program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University. A Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology and Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Holloway has had more than 25 years' experience as a practitioner, educator, and consultant with organizations, groups, and mental health clients. She consults globally on system approaches to mentoring, coaching, and creating organizational communities of respectful engagement.
Table of Contents
Part One: Understanding Toxic People and Toxic Environments.1. The Human and Financial Costs of Working with Toxic People: Toxic Behaviors Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg.
2. Recognizing the Toxic Personality: It Isn’t as Easy as You Think.
3. Leader Reactions and Strategies That Typically Don’tWork: Why Identify Strategies That Don’t Work?
4. Organizational Culture: How Toxicity Spreads Like an Infection.
Part Two: The Toxic Organization Change System Model.
5. Organizational Strategies: Dealing with Toxicity at the Highest System Level.
6. Team Strategies: Dealing with Toxicity at the Team Level.
7. Individual Strategies: Dealing with Toxic People One-on-One.
8. Myths and Truths About Toxicity—and Renewal from a Toxic Environment: How to Move Beyond Toxicity.
Appendix A: Our Research Methodology.
Appendix B: National Survey Responses on Toxic Behaviors.
Notes.
The Authors.
Index.