Are you under the illusion?

This just in,

A new form of leadership has been introduced in our class. However, this isn’t your average ‘normal’ leadership concept. No. This is in the form of ‘toxic leadership’. The term says it all in the sense that no one likes toxic products in which they are bad for you and can be bad for your health. The concept(s) I will be discussing goes into toxic leadership and the different characteristics that accompany the leader. First off, there are to sub categories of this and they are intentional and unintentional toxic leaders. These people are bad news; let’s hope you haven’t run into any recently.

In this world there are good leaders and bad leaders to say the least. Unintentional toxic leaders engage in careless and reckless actions, including incompetence, nonetheless causing negative effects. On the other hand, intentional toxic leaders deliberately injure others or enhance themselves at others’ expense. For example, take Hitler and though some argue he was a good leader in the way how he poised himself in front of people (followers), but behind the scenes he was taking people out who got in his way to success as being the dictator of Germany. Now when we describe these types of leaders keep in mind that many of these ‘toxic’ leaders display not just one distinguishable trait, but many. They are as follows but not limited to:

-incompetence
-malfunctioning
-maladjusted
-sense of inadequacy
-malcontent
-irresponsible
-cowardice
-egotism

and much more. Do note that these are just the characteristics of toxic leaders, but there are different types of leaders that possess these traits and many others. I will only discuss two as they can relate to my personal experience and most likely yours. The first (concept) is the ‘busybody’ leader. The busybody leader is energetic, restless, constantly in motion and full of unfocused vigor. He may give full focus to one project or topic for a period and then jump to another for no apparent reason, leaving those around dazed and confused. This relates to me because my past manager felt the need to get many things done at once and often had his employees starting one task only to start another ten minutes later. This left myself confused on which was more important leaving the other ‘five’ tasks out. Also he felt as though he was perfect and assumed he was the center of attention in the work place. The other form (concept) is the ‘street fighter leader’. This leader is good to those who are loyal to her/him and can help her/him with his “wins,” but can be brutal to those who disagree with her/him or offer a dissenting opinion (also forms gangs to fight the battles they must win). This relates to my life and yours too given the area you live in, that there are plenty of gangs all across the U.S.; some more than others and even in high schools (the ones I went to especially). I have seen plenty of groups and people do things they weren’t supposed to at the leader’s discretion. Given all the above information, are you under a toxic leader and not know it yet?