Tips to Deal with Toxic Leaders!

If you're a fan of the film "The Devil Wears Prada" from 2006, then your wait for a sequel is over. Today, after 20 years, "The Devil Wears Prada 2" arrives in theaters.

The original film starred Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci in memorable roles about an aspiring journalist (Hathaway's character Andy) who got a job at a fashion magazine and worked for an extremely demanding boss (Streep's character Miranda). All will reprise their roles in the sequel.

Here are some iconic Miranda Priestly quotes:

"Details of your incompetence do not interest me."

"Truth is, there's no one who can do what I do."

"Please bore someone else with your questions."

But Miranda was much more than a demanding boss - she was a toxic boss.

According to a post by Gregg Vanourek, a leadership expert, "Toxic leaders inflict great damage on our organizations, communities, and nations. They draw us in with bold promises and then turn around and wreak havoc. It's important to understand the phenomenon of toxic leaders, especially why people fall for them."

Dr. Jean Lipman-Blumen, a prominent scholar of toxic leadership, defined toxic leaders as "individuals who, by virtue of their destructive behaviors and their dysfunctional personal qualities or characteristics, inflict serious and enduring harm on the individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and even the nations that they lead." In her book on the subject, she addressed the critical question of why people follow leaders who ultimately cause harm: "Toxic leaders may display confidence, charisma, and power, but their leadership is ultimately manipulative, self-serving, and detrimental to the well-being of their followers."

According to Professor Lipman-Blumen, here are some dysfunctional personal qualities of toxic leaders:

* Inability to determine right from wrong

* Enormous egos that blind them to their own shortcomings

* Arrogance that prevents them from admitting mistakes

* Ignoring others

* Reckless disregard for the impacts of their actions on others

* Harming the weakest people in the group or society

* Blaming others for their decisions and actions

* Using others to do their dirty work and throwing people under the bus

And as Gregg Vanourek wrote, "By understanding the allure of toxic leaders, we can build defenses against them. This requires critical thinking (including short-circuiting our cognitive biases), choosing better leaders, moral courage (including speaking truth to power), and cultures that value shared leadership and accountability."

Hey, Miranda...this time around, we're prepared and ready for you! See you at the movies!

SHARE THIS: We may grouse about toxic leaders, but frequently we tolerate them, and for surprisingly long periods of time. ~Jean Lipman-Blumen via @gvanourek #ToxicLeaders #TheDevilWearsPrada2 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

SHARE THIS: People don't quit jobs, they quit bosses. #ToxicLeaders #TheDevilWearsPrada2 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

SHARE THIS: We can find leadership lessons in movies. I call it the concept of reel leadership, looking at movies while intending to pull out leadership lessons. ~@JosephLalonde #ToxicLeaders #TheDevilWearsPrada2 #DebbieLaskeysBlog

Image Credit: The Walt Disney Company.

Read Gregg Vanourek's full article, "Why People Fall for Toxic Leaders" here:

https://triplecrownleadership.com/why-people-fall-for-toxic-leaders/

Check out the book, "The Allure of Toxic Leaders" by Jean Lipman-Blumen here:

https://www.amazon.com/Allure-Toxic-Leaders-Destructive-Politicians/dp/0195312007/

Check out the book, "Reel Leadership" by Joseph Lalonde here:

https://jmlalonde.com/product/reelleadershipbook/