{"id":1638,"date":"2015-10-11T20:50:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T20:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/?p=1638"},"modified":"2015-10-11T21:10:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T21:10:11","slug":"9-revelations-about-toxic-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/9-revelations-about-toxic-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Revelations About Toxic Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"articleHeader\">\n<h1 id=\"articleHeader__title\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.entrepreneur.com\/content\/16x9\/822\/20151009130204-toxic-leaders.jpeg\" alt=\"9 Revelations About Toxic Leaders\" \/><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<header>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"byline\"><a class=\"name\" href=\"http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/author\/steve-tobak\" rel=\"author\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hero lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.entrepreneur.com\/content\/1x1\/124\/20150914223606-SteveTobak.jpeg\" alt=\"Steve Tobak\" data-original=\"https:\/\/assets.entrepreneur.com\/content\/1x1\/124\/20150914223606-SteveTobak.jpeg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>STEVE TOBAK<\/div>\n<div class=\"title\">CONTRIBUTOR<\/div>\n<div class=\"bio\">Author and Managing Partner, Invisor Consulting<\/div>\n<div class=\"social\">\u00a0OCTOBER 09, 2015<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div>Image credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/pic-135869045\/stock-photo-boss-in-a-bad-mood-because-of-bad-results-telling-his-employees-they-re-incompetent.html?src=z6WJ5AL8VDeS55wVE4-_5w-1-60\" target=\"_blank\">Shutterstock<\/a><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<aside>\n<div>Contributor<\/div>\n<div>Author and Managing Partner, Invisor Consulting<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><time>October 09, 2015<\/time><\/p>\n<p>As a staunch supporter of corporate America, it gives me no pleasure to admit that some of the biggest jerks I\u2019ve known in my life have been senior executives.<\/p>\n<p>Wait, it gets worse.<\/p>\n<p>I was one of them.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I\u2019m afraid it\u2019s true. Most of the guys I thought were jerks would probably say the same thing about me. I don\u2019t suppose we\u2019ll ever know who the real jerks were. Probably all of us.<\/p>\n<p>If that\u2019s not confusing enough, you should also know that some of the best people I\u2019ve known were senior executives. Puzzle me that.<\/p>\n<p>Under the best conditions, relationships are subjective and situational. When you add all the pressures of the corporate world with so much on the line, workplace dynamics between highly motivated and opinionated individuals with diverse personalities can get pretty darn complicated &#8230; and overheated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/251358\" target=\"_blank\">10 Surprising Things Successful People Like<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While a relatively high percentage of accomplished business leaders can be brash and ruthless, contrary to what you might think, it\u2019s not all motivated by selfish greed and political posturing. A lot of it is normal conflict and competition, not to mention your average everyday dysfunctional behavior.<\/p>\n<p>During my years as a high-tech senior executive, I learned some interesting things about top executives, including myself. And they\u00a0just might come in handy, especially if you someday find yourself on the upper rungs of the corporate ladder. And don\u2019t be too surprised if, someday, some of these revelations end up applying to you.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Absolute power does corrupt absolutely.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Yes, the old adage is true. If you give people absolute authority and don\u2019t hold them accountable with airtight oversight, you can expect ugly things to happen. That\u2019s not always the case, but the risk is way too high to risk it, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Top execs can be loony, too.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I once read that about 20 percent of the population has been diagnosed with some form of psychological disorder. Personally, I think the percentage is much higher at the executive level. After all, it\u2019s so much easier to be delusional when you\u2019re actually on a pedestal. Forget executive coaches; CEOs would be better off with shrinks.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Big egos grow like bubbles until something pops them.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019m sure this is something a good shrink could explain, but for some reason, executive egos naturally tend to expand to fill as much room as you give them. That is, until some event where their bubble gets popped in a very public and humiliating way, i.e., they get fired.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>There is such a thing as evil genius.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>When I was a youngster, I used to wonder why there were no James Bond-like evil villains in the world. Turns out there are \u2026 in the boardroom. They\u2019re not just petty, vindictive, bullying, and manipulative. There is evil genius in some of their machinations. I know. I\u2019ve seen it.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Nobody really walks on water.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>While it\u2019s true that going head-to-head with a powerful exec is usually a loser \u2013 especially if it\u2019s your boss \u2013 there\u2019s an old Japanese saying, \u201cIf you stand by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by.\u201d Most dysfunctional executives eventually self-destruct. You can wait them out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/250342\" target=\"_blank\">2 Lessons You Can Learn From Entrepreneurial Failure<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Big executives lie big.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, Microsemi chief executive James Peterson, and former Broadcom SVP Vahid Manian all got caught for lying on their resumes. And I\u2019ve actually seen top executives of public companies lie through their teeth like boastful little kids in board meetings. No kidding.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Success is its own worst enemy.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If they\u2019re not grounded, success goes to people\u2019s heads. The more successful CEOs are, the more they\u2019re compensated, and the less oversight they\u2019re subjected to, the more risks they will take. Eventually, their egos will write checks that reality can\u2019t cash. I\u2019m not making that up; there have been studies.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>If you can\u2019t stand the heat, get out of the boardroom.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ve worked with some of the most narcissistic, sadistic, toxic, ruthless, maniacal, small-minded, passive aggressive, backstabbing, sugarcoating, brown-nosing slime-balls you will ever have the pleasure of being targeted for extinction by. But then, that just comes with the territory.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Everyone is an a&#8211;hole some of the time.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Why can\u2019t we all just get along? Because this enormous Petrie dish called life on Earth doesn\u2019t work that way. When you think about how different we are, how screwed up our brains can get, and how out of hand the business world is sometimes, it\u2019s hard to believe that anything gets done at all. But it does. God bless us, everyone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/251220\" target=\"_blank\">This Is Where Big Ideas Come From<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STEVE TOBAK CONTRIBUTOR Author and Managing Partner, Invisor Consulting \u00a0OCTOBER 09, 2015 Image credit: Shutterstock Contributor Author and Managing Partner, Invisor Consulting October 09, 2015 As a staunch supporter of corporate America, it gives me no pleasure to admit that some of the biggest jerks I\u2019ve known in my life have been senior executives. Wait, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/9-revelations-about-toxic-leaders\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">9 Revelations About Toxic Leaders<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","pmpro-has-access"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4MGMb-qq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}