When You Spot Toxicity, Nip It In The Bud!
Her team members were leaving in droves. Droves. The turnover in her department was staggering compared to the rest of the organization. People were miserable. They were afraid. They were being bullied.
And everyone knew it.
So I spoke up. I went to the CFO and said: “We’ve got to do something about this leader.”
He looked at me and said: “Well, she runs a real tight ship.” I said, “What does that mean?”
” She is always within her budget. She never overspends.”
And there it was. The thing we don’t say out loud but everyone knows: As long as you deliver results, and don’t make wave. As long as you don’t ask for more, we’ll look the other way.
Tolerating Toxic Leaders
This is what happens in some organizations. They tolerate toxic leaders. They tolerate them because they’re productive or don’t make waves. They hit their numbers. They’re within budget. They get things done.
We may even call them “high performers” even though they’re destroying people in the process. And we convince ourselves that the trade-off is worth it. That we can’t afford to lose someone who delivers results. That maybe they’re “just tough” or “demanding” or “have high standards.”
But here’s what we’re actually doing: We’re telling the entire organization that we value budget over people. That the bottom line matters more than how you treat human beings.
And that destroys culture faster than anything else. Ultimately it kills the bottom line.
Do The Math!
I pushed back on that CFO. I said: “Tell me what those numbers look like when you factor in the kind of turnover she has.”
Think about it. She’s staying within budget. Great. But what’s the cost of that turnover?
- The cost of constantly recruiting. Posting jobs. Reviewing resumes. Conducting interviews. Background checks. Onboarding.
- The cost of lost productivity. Every time someone leaves, there’s a gap. Other people pick up the slack. Projects slow down. Quality suffers.
- The cost of training. Every new person needs to be trained. That takes time from other staff members. That takes resources.
- The cost of institutional knowledge. When experienced people leave, they take knowledge with them. The new person doesn’t know the shortcuts, the workarounds, the history.
- The cost of low morale. When people see others leaving constantly, they start looking too.
- The best people—the ones with options—leave first.
Add all that up, and staying within budget doesn’t look like such a win anymore. But we don’t see those costs. Or we don’t want to see them.
The Message You Send
When the C-suite tolerates toxic leaders, it sends a message to the entire organization: “This is what we actually value.” Not our mission statement about people being our greatest asset. Not our values poster about respect and dignity. What we actually value is hitting numbers. Period.
When people see toxic leadership being tolerated, they learn: Don’t bother reporting problems. Nothing will change. You’ll just make yourself a target. If toxic leaders get promoted, get bonuses, get praised for “running a tight ship,” what does that teach everyone else about how to succeed here?
When we keep people in a toxic environment because we’re afraid to lose them, we’re telling staff: Your mental health, your dignity, your safety—none of that matters as much as this person’s budget performance. And good people leave. Not just from that toxic leader’s department. From the entire organization. Because they see what you value.
The Ripple Effect
You might think: “Well, if this is just contained to one department, the rest of the organization is fine.”
No. It’s not contained. You can have a very good organization overall, with a strong culture. But you can have one little pocket with a leader that’s very toxic and very negative.
And it erodes everything.
Because those employees talk. They have lunch with people from other departments. They participate in cross-functional teams. They interact with patients or customers. Ultimately, it’s the senior leaders who look bad. Tolerating bad behavior erodes trust.
So let’s go back to that CFO who valued the leader who “runs a tight ship.” What did that cost the organization? I don’t have exact numbers. But I can tell you what I saw:
- Good people leaving. Not just from her department, but from other departments who saw how she was tolerated.
- A reputation in the community as a difficult place to work. Making it harder to recruit.
- Patients noticing. Commenting on how the staff seemed stressed, unhappy, afraid.
- Other leaders learned that budget was more important than how you treat people.
- A culture that could have been excellent being compromised by one toxic pocket.
And all of it was preventable. If they had valued people over budget. If they had acted when the signs were clear.
But they didn’t. Because she ran a tight ship.
If you’re tolerating toxic leadership because of financial performance alone, you’re paying a price. You might not see it on a budget line. But you’re paying it. In turnover. In recruitment costs. In reputation. In morale. In the good people who leave because they see what you actually value.
So here’s the question: What kind of culture will elevate your organization? What do you actually value and reward? What message are you sending?
Tags: EmployeeRetention, HealthcareLeadership, Leadership, OrganizationalCulture, ToxicLeadership
