Toxic Workplaces: The incompetent to the incomprehensible, the dysfunctional to the dastardly

Organisational psychologist and executive coach with over twenty years of experience, Leanne Faraday-Brash shares high level strategies and practical tips for CEOs and change leaders in her new book Vulture Cultures.

I think we could agree most workplaces understand the importance of engagement and its link to productivity, organisational health and profit. Evidence is consistently demonstrating that the quality of leadership and specifically leaders’ emotional intelligence are instrumental in fostering or eroding engagement.

However, culture and specifically counterproductive workplace behaviours (CWBs) also erode engagement in those who don’t want to be party to such behaviour and who can lose respect for leaders who see inappropriate things happen on their watch and fail to do anything about them.

Think about some typical behaviour we would all probably regard as counterproductive: theft, unethical dealings, misrepresentation, bullying or discriminatory practices like nepotism or sexual harassment. The three key questions to ask yourself about the health of your workplace culture are:

• Are any of these CWBs committed in your workplace – by whom (one or widespread?) and how often? (Anomalous or culturally pervasive)


• If committed, are they ‘called’? i.e. By whom? Consistently or intermittently?


• Even if they’re called, are they ‘consequenced’? i.e. A mild rap over the knuckle or disciplinary action that befits the size and severity of the transgression?

Not all perpetrators of CWBs are malicious and not all passive leaders necessarily approve of wrongful behaviour they don’t confront. But what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls is the willingness and ability to act on the behaviour such that perpetrators and onlookers understand such behaviours are not acceptable and must not continue (or perpetrators put at risk their ongoing employment).

I am not suggesting we throw the book at anyone for a mild, one-off or inadvertent mistake. Nor am I suggesting we scapegoat one employee to send a message to the others. The response must be proportional.

However, it is critical to remember this:

We get the culture we deserve. We get the behaviour we’re prepared to tolerate.

Leanne Faraday-Brash is an Organisational Psychologist, Executive Coach and Principal of Brash Consulting. She facilitates, consults and intervenes with individuals, teams and organisations from the dysfunctional and toxic right through the high performing, even elite. She is a certified speaking professional (CSP), which is the highest international accreditation for speakers and has presented in the US, Asia, Middle East and Europe.  Leanne’s book Vulture Cultures: How to stop them ravaging your performance, profit, people and public image has just been released by Australian Academic Press. She can be reached at www.brashconsulting.com.au