Surviving Toxic Leadership With Gratefulness

Book excerpt: Surviving Toxic Leadership with Gratefulness, is the result of my struggle to make sense of the experiences HR professionals generously shared with me, as well as my own nearly decade long experience with a toxic leader. In this book, I share gori details along with a systemic research-based perspective on toxic leadership, recognizing that the problem of a toxic workplace is never encapsulated in the leader alone. I argue throughout the book, that it is crucial and urgent that we not only learn about toxic leadership, but act to end it. Toxic leaders and those who enable them must be held accountable, and victims must be given the tools to become survivors.As you read this book, I hope you will find a connection between your own experiences and those that I and my research participants struggled with and ultimately survived. If you are reading this as a person who is currently experiencing toxicity in the workplace, or as someone who has recently escaped a toxic leader, I hope that the stories in this book will be affirming and comforting. You are not alone. If you are reading this as a person who is sympathetic to the problems of workplace toxicity and has the power to instigate change, either in your workplace or with a friend or family member who is victim to a toxic leader, these stories may be a useful reference.