Disrupting Burnout
Disrupting Burnout with Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson is dedicated to overworked, undervalued high-achieving servant leaders who give all to serve others and leave very little for yourself. You are an accomplished woman with many responsibilities and you often find yourself overwhelmed, exhausted, and burned out. I’ve been there. As a matter of fact, burnout almost cost me everything. Compassionate work can carry a high price tag: your mind, body, spirit and relationships may be in distress as you serve the needs of others. I am here to equip your hands and refresh your heart so you can serve in purpose and fulfillment and permanently break cycles of burnout.
Disrupting Burnout
121. The Hidden Cost of Toxic Leadership: Cultivating Healthier Workplaces
Hey Friend,
Have you ever stopped to consider if toxic leadership might be the root cause of your workplace burnout? This week, join me, Dr. Patrice Buckner-Jackson (PBJ), as we delve into the insidious effects of toxic leadership on our well-being at work.
In this episode titled "The Hidden Cost of Toxic Leadership: Cultivating Healthier Workplaces," we explore the damaging impact of practices like exclusionary meetings, harsh criticisms, and behaviors that foster fear and self-doubt among team members. We’ll discuss both personal experiences and observed incidents that highlight how such toxic environments can lead to significant physical and emotional tolls on employees.
Why does feedback sometimes feel like an attack? We’ll dig into the nuances of toxic behaviors, including gaslighting and manipulation, which can suppress individual brilliance and hinder collective progress. Even leaders with a seemingly kind demeanor can be harmful if their actions are driven by unchecked ambitions.
We also tackle the lack of transparency and inclusive decision-making in leadership, examining how withholding information and excluding frontline workers can poison workplace atmospheres, stifling innovation and growth. Drawing from Amy Edmondson’s research, we underscore the importance of creating environments where honesty and creativity are not just permitted but encouraged.
Join us as we advocate for the transformation of toxic workplaces into nurturing ecosystems that support psychological safety and enable teams to thrive. It's time to champion supportive, safe environments where you and your team can truly unlock your full potential.
Love Always,
PBJ
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You know, friend, it's so interesting to me how, even as I prepare to share with you today about toxic leadership, I feel. My body feels nervous, my heart is fluttering. I am no longer in those spaces, in those places. A lot of these examples of leadership are not even in position anymore, but just the thought of saying this out loud makes my whole body nervous. I am Dr Patrice Buckner-Jackson, but you can call me PBJ.
Speaker 1:Welcome to another episode of Disrupting Burnout, where we are giving you the strategies for pouring out purpose without enduring the consequences of burnout. Friend, listen, we have got to dig into the spaces that impact our burnout at work, right? So if you've read the book, if you listen to me, you know that I am not a person that says work created or work is the sole cause of your burnout. I think that there are deeper things, the heart work that needs to be done, however, comma. However, I think it's important for us to recognize that work can be a primary contributor to your burnout. Work can be a primary contributor to your burnout. I believe that work and work culture can create an environment for burnout to thrive, for burnout to be contagious, for burnout to grow. So, although I still believe and will continue to teach you to do the heart work. I do want to take some time talking about work, about work, culture and how we can transform environments so that our team can flourish and not just be surviving.
Speaker 1:Today, I want to talk to you about toxic leadership. Now, friend, even as I think through how to have this conversation with you, I can feel, I can physically feel the nervousness in my body, and it's so interesting. I think it's important to acknowledge that these things create trauma. Right, and I'm operating, I'm doing my work, I'm continuing to thrive and live life, and some of the things I've seen and some of the things I've experienced have created trauma to the point that, even as I prepare to say them out loud, my body responds to say hold on, friend, is that safe? Now, I'm not calling anybody's name, I'm not calling any institution. As a matter of fact, these things may or may not have directly happened to me, okay, but there are some things that I have witnessed over the years in my career in education, some examples of toxic leadership that I want to share today, just to describe to you what I mean by toxic leadership and how to know one, if your leadership is toxic, or two if you're under toxic leadership. Some of the things that I've seen and again, my years have been working in education, specifically higher education, so that is where I have seen these experiences. But some of these are also collected as I travel and serve secondary education and healthcare and public health and social work and other areas stories that people have shared with me about what they have endured under a toxic leader.
Speaker 1:Some experiences like secret meetings after work that everyone is not invited to. Well, a secret that's not really a secret. Everybody knows that the meeting is happening and they also know who's invited and who's not. And in these meetings the people who are not invited are on the agenda and I've experienced, I've witnessed these meetings being led by the leader. So this is not just peer-to-peer, colleague-to-colleague, but where the leader even if the leader didn't call the meeting, the leader allowed the meeting, the leader participates in the meeting.
Speaker 1:Any house divided against itself is going to fall and anytime there is space for leadership colleagues to gather to speak ill against personally, another professional professionally, another professional or teammate, another professional professionally, another professional or teammate against their efforts, against their work, against their goals, against their specific teams Progress is not going to happen for anyone because that particular unit is divided by the divisive connections, by the divisive talk, by the divisive opinions. It cannot stand. Oh, my goodness, friend, I am just popping in real quick to let you know that we are 90% toward our goal of 25,000 downloads. Oh yeah, friend, listen, the drive to 25 is not over and we are less than 1,500 downloads, 90% towards our goal of 25,000 downloads. I am so grateful to all of you who continue to listen and share this episode. It means so much that you find value here. Listen, I need your help. Share this episode with people who need it. Tell them to catch up on the old episodes. Before we know it, we're going to be at 25 and we're going to celebrate. Friend, let's go.
Speaker 1:I've also witnessed and heard folks share concerning harsh leadership, where the feedback that people receive, the criticism that people receive, the goal of it is not to make them better but to tear them down. Where it may be said that our goal is to make you better, but the truth is those words are meant to hurt. Those words are meant to hurt. Those words are meant to control. Those words are meant to keep someone in their place.
Speaker 1:I often talk about hiding in plain sight, where there is brilliance in a person, I mean profound brilliance. But they spend their time pushing that brilliance down and pushing it back for fear of what other folks will say or how they will be treated if they were to allow that brilliance to shine. And I think hiding in plain sight is a learned behavior. I think that we have had experiences where either someone has said or done something that has taught you in this culture, your brilliance is not welcomed. In this culture, we want you to make us look good, but then you need to stand behind the curtain and pretend that it was our win, our brilliance, our work, and, without even recognizing it, people begin to cower. And there's this wrestle in your soul as you are pouring out brilliance but hiding from the shine, everything inside of you is wrestling to say, hey, stand up, step up. You are needed in this hour, but everything your trauma has taught you is to stay low, stay small, stay hidden right. And I'm not talking about pride Y'all hear my heart. I'm talking about being free being free to be who you were created to be in that space and to pour out in the way that you were created to pour out in that space versus being shackled in a way that you cannot freely give and freely be.
Speaker 1:I've also seen where leaders have a my way or the highway dictator kind of approach to work and approach to leadership. Any idea outside of their idea is wrong. Any way outside of their way is wrong. Any alternative thought is not welcomed. And I've even seen it where or I've seen it, heard it where a leader would say do it my way and this is for your good, stay in line with what I'm telling you, and this is because I care about you. I'm doing, I'm leading you this way. I'm leading you with a heavy hand. I'm leading you in this way. I'm leading you with fear. I'm leading you with threats, because it's in your best interest. I am making you a better leader. I am opening the door to your next step. It is because of me that you are rising through the ranks, so this is good for you.
Speaker 1:When I was coming through in my career, I don't really think we knew a word for it, but today they call it gaslighting. Today we call it gaslighting where a person is saying I am treating you harshly and this is for your good. I have often thought what would we say if that was in a personal relationship, if there were two humans who were in, let's say, a love relationship and one person is saying I am treating you harshly because it's for your good, I am using fear as a tactic in our relationship because it's making you better, I am discounting your contributions, I am speaking harshly to you and about you behind your back because this is good for you. I think anyone who would observe that relationship would quickly say that that's an abusive relationship. But we allow the same behavior to thrive in our professional leadership and our professional relationships.
Speaker 1:Friend, this is toxic leadership. I'll give you one more example, because toxic leadership is not just about being mean. Toxic leadership is not just about necessarily being harsh. But I think you can be toxic with a smile. You can be toxic and be nice about it. You can be toxic and say hello to everybody and be shining and bright, but at the same time your leadership is stopping the progress of your team.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes you see this in unregulated personal ambition. So the person is nice, they're a nice person, they seem to care about their people, they ask about their personal lives and their families and that kind of thing. But there's a personal drive in this individual and it's not just about the collective results but it's about for them what their personal goals are and what they want out of their own career. Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to have ambition. I am an ambitious person, right. But I work very hard to keep my ambition in check, because ambition that is not regulated can quickly become toxic. And I have seen so many leaders who are so driven and focused on their agenda, what they want to accomplish, what they feel is right, their name, their awards, how they're spoken of, that they cannot see the impact on their people. They can't see what their driven nature, what their ambition is doing to the people who are trying to carry out what they're asking for. So toxic leadership is not just about a person who is doom and gloom. Toxic leadership can be a very nice person who is unaware of their impact on the team.
Speaker 1:Just because you're a nice person doesn't mean you're a good leader. How are you impacting the people that you work with? How are you impacting the people that are carrying forth the vision? Whose vision are you chasing? Is it the collective vision or is it your personal vision? Whose mission are you driven towards? Is it a personal mission, or is it the collective mission where everyone benefits? Is there a collective outcome that has benefits for the entire team, not just the people you serve, but the people you serve with? Or are your goals, are your ambitions, are your thoughts driven towards what you, as the individual leader, needs or wants out of your career and out of your life? This, my friends, this is toxic, toxic leadership. So how do we know? How do we know if our leadership is toxic? How do we know if our work culture is toxic? I'm going to give you one telltale, one clear way to know if your leadership is toxic or if your work environment is toxic If there's a lack of psychological safety in your workplace, if there is a lack of psychological safety in your workplace, I want you to know that that is a telltale sign that there's toxic leadership in a toxic work environment.
Speaker 1:What do I mean by psychological safety? So we've discussed this before, but just a quick review. The researcher that is credited with coming up with the term team psychological safety is Amy Edmondson, and I believe Edmondson is a professor at Harvard Business, if I've got that correctly, and this started in her dissertation work and has continued. And, edmondson, I've gotten this from the Harvard Business Review that team psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team, that it's okay to take risk, to express your ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions and to admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences consequences.
Speaker 1:Now I want you to consider your work culture and your work environment. I want you to think about your staff meetings. I want you to think about the collaborations that happen, the committees, the projects, the work that's going on. I want you to think about how people interact. Is there a freedom to speak and to share and to ask questions, or is there trepidation for people to speak up or to give an alternative idea or thought or to disagree?
Speaker 1:Is there an environment where every person feels and knows that they are valued and welcomed, no matter what their rank, no matter what their title, no matter what their salary is? Are you working in an environment where every individual knows how important they are to the work, to the community, to the outcomes, or are you working in a space where certain individuals are valued and others are not? Is there effective communication? Do people know what, like my daddy says, what right looks like? Do they know what the measures of success are? Are they aware of how they're being measured and how their success is going to be defined? Or are people guessing? Are they struggling to meet the mark because they don't know where the mark is? The destination has not been set, it has not been clearly communicated, no-transcript. Are there secrets and lack of transparency?
Speaker 1:Now I want to pause here because I am aware and again, my experience comes from higher education. I'm aware that there are situations where we may not fully share every detail of a thought or an idea or a direction until a specific time. Right, and I actually have some honor for this. I've learned over the years that humans are going to human. What do I mean? It is natural to want to share, to say something to. When you find out something that others don't know, it is natural to have a bend towards wanting to tell somebody else. And sometimes, when these ideas, these thoughts, when these directions are released too quickly in their infancy, before we even have time to vet things, before we even have time to have a plan, it's ruined before it even has time to, to, to work, because words spread like wildfire, emotions get involved and you can't even do what you intended to do because it's just not going to work anymore. So I do have some value for being strategic and timely in how to share.
Speaker 1:But let me just say this everything doesn't fall into that category. Everything should not be withheld. Everything should not have a hold on it. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of things where we need to involve many more people in the conversations. It's often where leadership may be making decisions without having a full view of all of the information, because they haven't invited the right people to the table. Often we invite people to the table according to their rank or according to their title, but we fail to invite the boots on the ground, people who are doing the work every day, to bring us the information that they have so that we can make a decision together. There are so many opportunities where we can invite people to the table to hear their perspective, but to also get their buy-in. So our direction is ours, and not just the direction of the leader or the direction of the leadership team, but the direction is ours. But we fail to do that and we say that everything needs to be protected because we can't trust people. But the truth of the matter is there are many, many, many opportunities for us to engage people, for us to hear them, for us to bring them to the table so that they can contribute and be invested in the direction that we're going. So when there are secrets and a lack of appropriate transparency, it's a sign of toxic leadership and a toxic work culture.
Speaker 1:When folks operate in fear, if they are at constant fear for their job, if they are in constant fear for their position or their rank. There were spaces in my career that I was so in fear of losing my place, losing my income, losing my position, that I can look back now and see how it impacted my leadership and my team, because when my team would have an idea or a thought or something that they would want to try, there will always be hesitation on my part because I did not trust that the leadership would be open to the idea or the way. And, whether I said it or not, I know my team could feel it. I know that it fueled frustration in them when they are the folks on the front lines doing the work and can clearly see a direction that we need to move in, but felt shackled, felt held captive, felt locked in on an old way that was no longer working just because an individual wouldn't understand it or wouldn't agree. So I know that I've contributed. I'm not proud of that, but I'm admitting. I know that I've contributed to a toxic work environment when I was trying to align with a leader that wasn't open to new ideas and therefore I would not allow my team to explore new ideas. That fear fear of losing your place, fear of losing your job creates toxic leadership and a toxic work environment when there is a failure to embrace failure and mistakes, a mistake culture, a failure culture.
Speaker 1:When Edmondson did her original research, my understanding was that she was studying mistakes in healthcare and her hypothesis was that better teams made less mistakes and what she found was that stronger teams reported a higher level of mistakes. And as she continued to study, what she discovered was that the healthier teams had more freedom in reporting mistakes. So it wasn't that they were making more mistakes. It was that they were more honest and transparent concerning those mistakes, because there was safety in the work environment to share. And when there's safety in the work environment to share psychological safety, there's a freedom of ideas, there's a freedom of strategy and creativity.
Speaker 1:The investment is greater because when you're in an environment where you know you are valued and that you are safe. It creates a space that you can bring the best of who you are. When you are in an environment where you don't feel safe, where you don't feel covered, where you don't feel valued, it creates an environment where your nervous system feels the need to constantly protect you. So you lose your access to strategy and creativity and that free flow of ideas, because your nervous system is saying we just need to stay in our lane and be okay here so that we can keep our job and keep our income, and this happens without deep thought. Your nervous system naturally takes care of you. You've heard me say this before.
Speaker 1:So where there is a lack of failure culture, mistake culture and embracing that we're human, an ability to learn from mistakes, there's a toxic work culture, and specifically for my friends in education. So I want you to think about it this way. In education, especially in higher education, but in all levels we are used to being evaluated, being graded, getting your writing back with red pen all over it, defending your ideas, defending your research, having a committee or a board of people have to approve, making sure that you align with the expectations of those evaluators. So, instead of expressing your own thoughts and your own ways. You learn how to color within the lines so that you can be approved, so that you can be promoted, so that you can be tenured all of the things right. That's a part of our culture, that that is who we are as educators. But for a moment I want us to think of the impacts of that on our work culture, because what I find, as educators, we many of us. So I'm speaking generally, not everyone, because there may be some of you out there saying PBJ, I'm going to do it. So I'm speaking generally, not everyone, because there may be some of you out there saying PBJ, I'm going to do it my way, no matter what, right, but just generally.
Speaker 1:Here's some things that I've seen. I've seen educators hesitate to share their thoughts, to share their ideas, to give an alternative idea, especially because we're afraid that it might fail. Because if you come out with a different thought and it has a powerful impact and you know there's a positive response, then it's a win and you're an expert now and everybody respects it. But if you come out with a different thought and people criticize it, they tear it down, they tear it apart, it dies in the water. And then there's this disrespect that comes along with it. Sometimes you lose, even professionally, whether income or rank or status. You lose right. So we have a culture that does not embrace mistake culture, embrace mistake culture.
Speaker 1:On the student affairs side, I've seen where we have a program or an event for our students and we ask the questions how many students came? And I get it. I get it. I know that we have to justify the money that we're spending and if it's a good use of the funds and if students are engaged in what we're doing. All of that is important. But sometimes the win is not in the numbers. Sometimes the win, even if it was a smaller crowd, did that smaller crowd get what they needed? Was there value there? Did they learn something that they did not know? Did they grab a tool or a strategy to help them not just be a better student but a better person, to be more well, to be more well-rounded, to connect, to have community?
Speaker 1:We have to be careful how we criticize our work in education and how we fail to make space for failure and for mistakes. We know as human beings that some of the greatest lessons we learn is by making mistakes. Sometimes you have to do something over and over and over before it gets better. But if you constantly have the pressure that everything you do has to be perfect every time, number one is not going to be. Number two, you lose the activity to learn. And number three, you lose space for creativity because nobody wants to step outside the lines, nobody wants to be the maverick, nobody wants to be the one to say, okay, I'm going to do this differently and if it fails, we'll just try again later.
Speaker 1:There's not always freedom for that and, as a matter of fact, it can be professionally dangerous in some environments to do that, and that is a sign of toxic leadership and toxic work culture. So I want to encourage you to evaluate your leadership, evaluate your work culture, determine if there's a culture of psychological safety or if there is a culture that needs to be changed, that needs to be transformed, that your people, your outcomes, your mission is suffering. Friend, it is time for us to transform our work cultures so our folks can get out of burnout culture. As always, you know, you are powerful, you are significant, you are brilliant and you are loved. Love always, pbj.
