Introduction: The Rise of the Toxic Humans

When I was writing my book about altruism, compassion and empathy in an environment of ongoing turbulence – Expert Humans – Critical Leadership Skills for a Disrupted World – the alarming degree of dysfunctionality in Boards and organisations I noticed and the disastrous impacts they had and continue to have – made me think about approaching the subject of how to create the conditions for more humane and human workplaces from a different perspective.

I had explored what it would take to create the conditions for more psychological safety in organisations and through doing this, I was confronted time and again by the reality of work life today, which is that too many people are suffering as a result of what we term ‘toxic’ or ‘poisonous’ leadership. As I started to reflect on where this toxicity comes from, it occurred to me that while toxicity exists at all levels and in all corners of organisations, it is the Board members and senior management who set the tone for the organisation and who have among their various responsibilities a duty of care to employees who are impacted by the culture that evolves on their watch. It was for this reason that I eventually decided to focus on toxicity in Boards and among senior leaders in organisations – and to start off by asking a trio of questions, namely what exactly are we looking at when we talk about toxicity, what are the implications of this toxicity in Boards and organisations and most critically, what can we do about it, assuming that we can do something about it?