Toxic Followers — Who Are They and How to Deal With Them

• In Event: Followers Ahead and Behind —Note the Variances Within

Short Description

We all know toxic leaders, whether we have worked for one or been around one, but what about toxic followers? Are they the precursor to toxic leaders? How do you identify them and, once identified, what can you do to deal with them? This presentation will answer these questions.

Detailed Abstract

The study of followership is a growing field, but most of the literature focuses on good followers or how to be a good follower. The problem is there are a lot of bad followers, some of whom are actually toxic. Anyone in the work force for any length of time has had to deal with them. This presentation uses George Reed’s definition of a toxic leader and applies it to followers to determine their toxicity.

Toxic followers do not care about their peers and are concerned about their own welfare over that of the organization. They also have a negative effect on the climate and working conditions through their demeanor or actions. Using Robert Kelley’s model of followership, we can find toxic followers in each of his categories of followers, even exemplary followers.

Exemplary followers are those who are self-motivated and solve problems without being told what to do. These are the types of followers any leader wants. However, the darker side of the exemplary follower is shown in several examples. First is Reinhard Heydrich, the author of Hitler’s Final Solution to exterminate Jews in Europe. Hitler probably considered him exemplary with his can do, problem solving attitude. He was a toxic follower to society and humanity, evil in his actions, but an exemplary follower to Hitler in his fervor. Other less extreme examples of toxic followers are Volkswagen engineers and executives with the emissions scandal, designing a computer system to cheat the test, and Merck with its Vioxx scandal, promoting their popular pain reliever even though they knew it caused heart attacks and death in many of its users. These toxic exemplary followers lied and falsified data to enrich their company, but with toxic results to society.

Yes–Men are closely related to exemplary followers in their zeal to follow their leaders except they need someone to tell them what to do because of a lack of ability to think critically. SGT Evan Vela is a good example of a toxic yes-man. He shot an unarmed Iraqi civilian when ordered to do so by his squad leader and was sentenced to ten years in jail. In another instance in Iraq,three Soldiers were convicted of killing three unarmed Iraqis after they were captured. They let the prisoners go so they could shoot and kill them as they fled. Their plea in their trial was that their Brigade Commander, COL Michael Steele, told them to kill all military age males.

Survivors are followers who change and adapt to survive. Toxic followers are those who influence or control their boss to do evil to help the leader survive, thereby helping themselves to survive as well. An example is Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, who was convinced by GEN Constantine Chiwenga, his military chief, to hold a runoff election after he lost the primary election. During the three month preparation for the runoff, the military killed, displaced, or ran off thousands of opposition supporters allowing Mugabe to remain president. These first three types of toxic followers are not toxic to their leaders but to their organizations and to society.

The fourth type of follower is the alienated follower. These are followers who are disgruntled and have lost faith in the organization. They have negative energy and usually go along with their leader’s guidance, but not openly opposing it. A toxic alienated follower is one who openly opposes the leadership, although not necessarily where the leadership can see them. These are the ones who gossip, backbite, find faults, and actively try to disrupt their leader’s efforts. Two recent examples of this type of follower are Bradley (Chelsea) Manning and Edward Snowden who both gave away classified information. They actively sought to undermine the activities of their government with toxic results to their organizations.

The last type of follower is a sheep. These are followers who do what they are told and only what they are told. They are totally dependent on their leader. This type of follower becomes toxic when they refuse to take responsibility for their actions even when they know they are doing evil. They are best described by the term administrative evil. It is characterized by the Nuremburg trial defense of, “I was only following orders.” There were many involved in making the trains run during the Holocaust, who accounted for the prisoners and performed all sorts of activities which did not directly harm those who were slaughtered by the Nazis. Their collective actions had a toxic effect on their society. On a less drastic level, those who work in such industries as tobacco, who know their product is addictive and causes cancer, are complicit in the damage tobacco causes. In some ways we are all guilty and tainted by our inaction when contributing to the harm of others and society through various day to day activities.

The best way to reduce toxic followers is to reduce toxic leaders. Peer policing and firing toxic followers is another way to reduce it. Encouraging moral courage and intelligent disobedience among followers will help hold toxic followers accountable. Leaders need to monitor the climate and culture of the organization to ensure toxic followership is not bred or tolerated. Reevaluating awards systems to make sure they do not incentivize the wrong things will help. Wells Fargo Bank’s recent scandal came from paying bonuses for new accounts which led to wholesale lying in forging new accounts.

Toxic followership is an issue for both leaders, followers, and coworkers. It is a topic which needs some light shed on it. Toxic followers harm organizations, drive away good followers, and cause a danger to society.

Participant

• Ted A. Thomas, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College