Toxic management can cause serious damage to the way a team functions. As a manager or employee, you need to take this type of behavior into account, because it’s bad for the company.

Managing a team is a complex job requiring specific skills. The roles of a manager are many and varied:

• Creating a climate of trust ;
• Motivating and training employees ;
• Achieve objectives set by management.

The manager must be able to supervise a group of people, providing them with the know-how to carry out a mission. To do this, it needs certain skills such as :

• Communication ;
• Organizational skills;
• Listening;
• Diplomacy;
• Crisis management.

The manager must be as involved in the project as the members of his or her team. He or she needs to understand the company’s objectives and those of the employees, while building mutual trust so that the team works in the same direction as him or her.

There are different types of toxic managers:

• The malicious manager who highlights your mistakes, no matter how small. The goal? Emphasize your incompetence by highlighting details with no real added value;
• The idealistic manager who sets unrealistic and unattainable goals, while blocking exchanges or making himself or herself unavailable;
• The domineering manager who abuses hierarchical power by tending to criticize and even humiliate in public. This person uses his or her power to manipulate others and get what he or she wants;
• The leading manager who tends to focus more on results than on his or her team, without trying to adapt to the pace of his or her colleagues;
• The extreme manager who adopts an overly energetic attitude: very encouraging, very invested, very demanding, very rushed, even if this means wearing out his or her colleagues over the long term.

Faced with toxic management, employees prefer to keep silent out of modesty. This can have dramatic consequences:

• On a cognitive level: the exhausted employee will not perform his or her tasks properly;
• Emotionally: the employee tends to be more stressed, anxious, irritable, even withdrawn;
• Somatically: the employee experiences chronic back pain, shoulder pain, dizziness or sleep disorders;
• Behavioral: the employee may develop conflictual relationships with others.

A toxic manager can also do a great deal of damage to the morale of a team that feels :

• Less inclined to collaborate ;
• Less satisfied with their work and pay ;
• Less productive.

It’s not just the employees who suffer the negative effects of toxic management, but also the company, which can lose customers, profits and even employees.

While it is difficult to deal with toxic management, there are steps you can take to try to handle the situation appropriately:

• Understand the source of toxic behavior: is it a personality that has always been this way, or are there circumstances that have contributed to it?
• Clearly communicate your feelings and needs while trying to remain calm and professional;
• Take care of your own well-being by taking time to relax and recharge;
• Talk to someone you trust – a colleague, mentor or HR manager – to get support and find ways of dealing with the situation.

If the toxic behavior persists despite these solutions, it’s important to share your concerns with someone who can take concrete action.

Over a defined period, the interim manager responds to various challenges, including crisis management, while taking charge of implementing a new managerial policy. He or she can take over from a toxic manager to give clear, motivating orders, while building relationships based on trust.