Toxic Workplace!: Managing Toxic Personalities and Their Systems of Power

Praise for Toxic Workplace!

"Toxic Workplace! describes how to identify and best work with toxic personalities. It also provides a systemic approach for creating a culture that's positive and respectful while improving the bottom line. Kusy and Holloway share how their national research translates into real-world practices in organizations. I endorse their practical, concrete approaches that will make a significant difference in organizations today and in the future."
—Gregg Steinhafel, president and CEO, Target Corporation

"Toxic Workplace! brings a rare and valuable view of one of the great challenges facing leaders in today's organizations. It is a significant guidebook to the healthy enterprise of the future, not only because of Kusy and Holloway's systems approach to dealing with toxic personalities, but also their unique practice of creating communities of respectful engagement. This book demonstrates how this impacts both organizational social responsibility and the bottom line."
—Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.; founding president and chairman of Leader to Leader Institute, formerly The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management

"Transforming the culture to support the strategy and mission is the real stuff of leadership. Toxic Workplace! gives you the research-based tools to identify and deal with the 'dark side' of this important dynamic. Read it and you will engage your organization in new, more authentic, and effective ways!"
—Kevin Cashman, author, Leadership from the Inside Out and senior partner, Korn/Ferry Leadership & Talent Consulting

Customer Reviews:

You will never look at people the same way again

By Ralf Weiser - November 14, 2009

Hello there,

This book is really great in that it tackles the subject of toxic people by using the three-fold strategy - instead of the old and highly unreliable approach: "Just kick this or the other person off the team and thing will improve automatically". That does not work, or at least not well. The author did a great job in explaining that it does take addressing toxic people directly, and it recommends to also deal with the aftermath (usually the confusion and power vacuum) as well as with my favorite topic: Instill a great deal of integrity, honesty, but most of all purpose into your top leadership and thus the whole organization.
I found this book so captivating that I read it on a plane ride from Arizona to Philadelphia.
Ralf Weiser

Toxic Workplace

By teamleader - May 26, 2011

The contents of this book provided me with a great understanding into the behaviours of my team that I couldn't find elsewhere, and why the team wouldn't deal with the toxic personalities that existed. It also highlighted some of the hidden effects on other individuals. I have now started the process of turning the team around and dealing with the specific problem individuals.
It is worth reading if you have trouble personalities in your work place and I have shared it with a number of other managers in my workplace.

Evironmental Protection Agents for Corporate America

By Larry Underwood "Author - St Louis Cardinals ... - May 12, 2009

It's a sad commentary on business life in general, when very few of us can truthfully assert that (a) we've never had to deal with at least a couple of toxic losers on the job and (b) those who are most inflicted with highly dangerous levels of toxical substances in their soul are actually shocked when confronted with this reality. "Me? It's them, I tell you; it's them!"

Of course, it's no shock to this reviewer that many companies, world-wide, are plagued with this syndrome; but help has arrived----this wonderful and very timely book, authored by a couple of brilliant Ph.Ds, no less.

What gives me even greater hope for the world of business in the future are the recent releases of several other books dealing with the elimination of toxic waste in the workplace.

"Employee engagement" seems to be the best remedy companies can use---the simple, common sense approach of giving employees positive feedback on a regular basis as their skills improve, while... read more