Have you worked for a toxic leader?

I know of one that was i n the coast guard. The good news is that he retired from the coast guard 10 years ago. The bad news is: "I've been working for him for the last 6 years".

Good for the Coast Guard, bad for you, huh?
 
I am not saying that it is not a trait, but it goes back to my statement regarding Medusa. You can't cut the snakes, you have to cut Medusa's cranium.

The fact is the way the military and corporate America work are identical. At the upper levels it is not "what you know", but "who you know". It is hard to get rid of a "toxic leader" if they are connected. The toxic leader was placed there by the person above them, tell me are you going to risk your position because YOU find them toxic? Maybe their boss doesn't see them as toxic. Maybe they will see you as toxic.

That is what goes through a person's mind.

It goes through your mind even more in the military because they hold your career in their hands. 9 times out of 10, most people will actually do exactly one of those traits that people listed as a toxic leader.

Place their career in front of others...they do that because they are up for a promotion, a PCS, a career school, etc. They place their life in front of everyone else. They are not going to risk their career opportunities to rock the boat. They will bite the tongue, bide their time, and hope. That means the toxic leader gets to move onward and upward. As I stated reality and theory rarely meet.

I am sure you want to believe you will be different, but the reality is the military trains you to "salute sharply and follow", it teaches you a "chain of command", and when you go AD you will see people who didn't do that and paid a heavy price. I would love to say that careers are made only on experience, knowledge and success, but it isn't. It is like the corporate world. It is human. It is about being able to bend/meld to the bosses direction.

Due to those facts, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those FCC's become DO's, and they will say when I was an FCC or shop chief, I had to suck it in and up, so get over yourself, this is my way, and deal with it because I had to deal with it. RHIP (rank has its privileges)
 
People like this survive in large part because they are good at hiding their worst traits from the people who write their reports and because they know how to play the system as well as or better than others. I worked for a (at that time 2 star- he retired as a 4 Star) 2 Star who had a saying about this: "Camouflage nets work great at hiding things from the air- they don't work worth a damn at eye level"- his point being that if you really want to know about a leader, you have to look at them from the same level an below as well as from above and find out what they look like from his peers and subordinates. So "toxic" leaders exist in large part because their leaders, Commanders or managers, don't spend the time to learn much about what is really going on in their own organizations- in other words, because they themselves have neglected some leadership fundamentals. Every command beyond O3 Company Command level in the Army is board selected- so if the Commanders don't do their job and know their subordinate commanders- the system will just keep churning these guys to the top of the vat. I believe that they are looking at 360 degree evaluations as part of the OER process- I think that will be hard to manage but could really provide a lot of correction to the system as far as this issue goes.
 
Last edited:
In no way was I trying to say that I would be the "one" who would revolutionize the way that things are done. I'm sorry if you misunderstood me, but I was simply pointing out one of the traits of a toxic leader. I'm not saying that I will be different, or that you are wrong about reality and theory ever actualizing in unison.
 
Back
Top