Dr Belinda Board, world renowned business psychologist and our CEO and founder, spoke in January about toxic leadership within organisations. Drawing on her extensive research in this area, she explored the power leaders have to create either an environment that allows people to grow and give their best, or a ‘toxic workplace’ where everyone is unhappy and disengaged. While leaders are in a privileged position, toxic leaders abuse this position, putting their own interests before those of the group or organisation, which can be corporately catastrophic. Dr Board discussed the characteristics and behaviours of ‘toxic leaders’ and explored common issues and strategies, looking at leaders’ psychological capabilities as well as influences within the organisation. She concluded by stating that organisations must create effective management processes and tools to identify early signals of derailment and act on them rather than ignoring them which is too often the case
