The Lasting Impact of Toxic Leadership and How to Rebuild Trust

“If you ever fire that leader, let me know and I’ll come back!”

This superstar employee loved their job, their coworkers, and even their customers.

But boy. That manager (and the manager’s boss) was the worst!

There’s truth to the adage, “People don’t quit jobs, they quit managers.”

I can name over a dozen people who told me a story like this.

I can also tell you none of them ever went back to the company they left, even after the toxic manager was no longer there.

What happened? Weren’t they going to come back?

You could argue how the grass is greener elsewhere, people change, or they don’t want to work anymore.

While there may be some truth to those rebuttals, they all do the same thing:

Shift blame away from the company and its leadership.

And that’s the heart of it.

The lasting impact of bad leadership is a real issue most companies ignore.

Let’s illustrate this with a story.

Suppose a fire breaks out and a building is burning with an active fire.

It started out as a leaky fuel line that had a small-but-steady stream of fuel pouring out.

The fuel starts to soak the areas around it.

Sparks from some neglected mechanical items cause embers to ignite.

The embers grow into fires.

Those fires consume a room.

Then the entire building.

Someone sees there’s fuel pouring onto the fire, making it almost impossible to put out.

Finally, they’re able to turn off the fuel line.

Hooray!

It’s here where many leaders celebrate. They think that removing the fuel—firing the bad leader—is enough to fix the situation. After all, there’s nothing actively feeding the fire anymore.

But, shutting off the fuel line just stops adding fuel to the fire.

The fire itself is still burning!

The fire still must be put out.

Damage must be assessed.

Cleaning up must begin.

Only after all these steps can rebuilding begin.

Even after all of this, it still takes time to create a track record that says, “I’ve learned from the mistakes of the past and there won’t be new fires.”

Then, and only then, does trust begin to be rebuilt.

The toxic leaders you let stick around are the fuel that’s pouring into the fires of your business.

The sparks and embers are the normal, day-to-day mistakes that happen because we’re all humans doing work for other humans.

The fires? Well, you’re familiar with those. They’re the irate customer, high turnover departments, and public black eyes you react to and hope for the best.

Those bad leaders you have? They relish the fires. They love the allure of the blaze because they love to be a firefighter. Worse yet, they might also love finding scapegoats.

Firing your toxic leaders and stopping there is like turning off the fuel line and expecting the building to return to normal.

You must do the work to put out the fire, rebuild, and regain trust.

The principles in The Healthy Company Framework rebuild the infrastructure in your business.

You have to create a clear vision of where your company is headed. You must help everyone understand why their work matters and give them a clear path to winning at their job.

It’s up to your leadership team to make sure communication is rich and frequent about the work that gets done as it goes from department to department and throughout the layers of leadership, from the front-most employee to the CEO.

If you’re struggling with high turnover departments or want to keep your top talent, consider Company Connection’s Management Training Program. Your entire C-suite will leave with a better understanding of how to work together, along with all their direct reports, towards the place you want your company to go.

We’d love to help you take your worst department or manager and turn them into the example your company follows.

Just firing a toxic leader is like just stopping the fuel as it pours into the fire. You must do the work to put out the fire, assess the damage, and rebuild!