The day this person left our company is considered an annual holiday!

THIS QUOTE, taken from Kusy and Holloways research on toxic personalities, echoes the frustration and confusion that come from working with or managing an extremely difficult person. Just one toxic person has the capacity to debilitate individuals, teams, and even organizations.

Toxic Workplace! is the first book to tackle the underlying systems issues that enable a toxic person to create a path of destruction in an organization, pervading others thoughts and energies, even undermining their very sense of well-being. Based on all-new research with over 400 leaders, many from the Fortune 500 list, this book illustrates how to manage existing toxic behaviors, create norms that prevent the growth or regrowth of toxic environments, and ultimately design organizational communities of respectful engagement.

Kusy and Holloways research reveals the warning signs that indicate a serious behavioral problem and identifies how this toxicity spreads in systems with long-term effects on organizational climate, even after the person has left. Their two-year, cutting-edge research study provides very specific actions that leaders need to take to reduce both the intensity and frequency of toxic personalities at work. No other book provides this menu of options from asystems perspective with practical relevance in real work situations.

Youll learn how to identify the toxic personality and describe the leader reactions and approaches that typicallydont work.Toxic Workplace! provides hands-on approaches that work with research-based strategies at the individual, team, and organizational level.Toxic Workplace! will provide new insights on how leaders lead, how organizational cultures sustain themselves, and how teams deal with toxic personalities.

Mitchell Kusy, PhD, is a consultant and full professor in the graduate program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University. A 2005 Fulbright Scholar in international organization development, Dr. Kusy consults globally in strategic planning, leadership development, 360-degree feedback, organization development, and designing organizational communities of respectful engagement. He is a visiting professor at several universities internationally.

Elizabeth Holloway, PhD, is a consultant and full professor in the graduate program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University. A Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology and Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Holloway has had more than 25 years experience as a practitioner, educator, and consultant with organizations, groups, and mental health clients. She consults globally on system approaches to mentoring, coaching, and creating organizational communities of respectful engagement.

Part One: Understanding Toxic People and Toxic Environments 1

1. The Human and Financial Costs of Working with Toxic People: Toxic Behaviors are Just the Tip of the Iceberg 3

2. Recognizing the Toxic Personality: It Isnt as Easy as You Think 21

3. Leader Reactions and Strategies That Typically Dont Work: Why Identify Strategies That Dont Work? 43

4. Organizational Culture: How Toxicity Spreads Like an Infection 67

Part Two: The Toxic Organization Change System Model 85

5. Organizational Strategies: Dealing with Toxicity at the Highest System Level 89

6. Team Strategies: Dealing with Toxicity at the Team Level 111

7. Individual Strategies: Dealing with Toxic People One-on-One 151

8. Myths and Truths About Toxicityand Renewal from a Toxic Environment: How to Move Beyond Toxicity 181

Appendix A: Our Research Methodology 209

Appendix B: National Survey Responses on Toxic Behaviors 215

Notes 233

The Authors 237

Index 239