Surviving Toxic Leaders

Some months back, I came across Jean Blumen's book 'The Allure of Toxic Leaders'. In my browsing, she did a great job highlighting how and why people consistently (persistently) allow the rise of leaders of dubious morality, with charisma akin to that of Sith Lord/Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars fame, who manipulate and exploit the weaknesses of those who are around them. In Blumen's analysis, she identified individuals like the recently-deceased Kenneth Lay (of Enron infamy), Adolph Hitler as examples of toxic leaders.

I've had the opportunity to encounter with one such toxic leader over the past 1 year (certainly not one too few) in a community body that I was volunteering with. This person was distinctly a maverick, riding roughshod over the volunteers, who through their financial support, were paying his salary. His constituents, however, saw in him, the charismatic answer to all that was apparently wrong with the 'system'. To cut a long story short, he 'bit the hand that fed him', by taking about 80% of the constituents under him to join another organisation, without remorse, I might add.

The effects of serving under toxic leaders are immediately recognisable. The more important considerations is how to survive under them. Blumen suggests 3 key ways and we add a few more of our own.

Blumen proposes that:

• there is safety in numbers - count the costs of confronting such a leader. If you're not prepared for 'professional hara kiri', bide your time
• we should hold them accountable - where possible, document their decisions in black-and-white
• controlling oneself ie don't turn toxic yourself in the process

We believe that the Asian context, where 'group mentality' establishes the primacy of group norms over individualism, probably sees more people working and suffering under these toxic leaders in silence. Just 2 weeks ago, I was told by a friend about his ex-boss who would consistently zero in on a few individuals each year for 'special treatment'. Some coped so badly that they needed to seek 'psychiatric help'!

We suggest a few additional measures that should be considered:

• Gain clarity about what's fundamentally important to you - is it holding true to one's values or the security of a well-paying job? Tough situations create opportunities for seeking clarity and once that is gained, then strategies and plans can be made to align to mental perspective. Even if you are choosing the lesser of evils eg staying on in the job is not an option, then at least you would have gotten the resolve to see the situation through.
• Confide in someone who can lend a listening ear - Remember, a burden shared is a burden halved. Knowing that we are not alone in the situation does go a long way. However, it's also important to keep some perspective and not allow your sharings to become so malice-laden that you become toxic too.
• Have a sense of humour - Looking at a dark situation with humour can create a healthy 'distraction' from the trouble at work. You could also benefit from ther perspective-taking too, as you look for the funny moments in those dark situations. When humour and optimism develop, resilience is the result.
• Reflect and think about how this experience can make you into a better colleague and team leader, especially when you get into a new job setting. Learning about your own threshold, clarifying your values and goals are some opportunities that would lead to personal growth, even as you work under toxic leaders.
• Develop Plan B - Well, when push comes to shove, there's never any harm in updating that resume and being on the lookout for an alternative. You never know when an opportunity might knock, so it's good to get prepared.

Noel Tan

Resident Philosopher

(*All Text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)

You've been trained, now perform...if only it were that EASY

Training budgets are usually the first to be slashed when it's crunch time for companies. The reason most often cited is that the Returns of Investment (ROI) in training is dismally poor. This perception is worsened by a variety of factors such as organisational turf battles, responsibility for training being subsumed under the Human Resources portfolio etc. It certainly does not help that most people have the perception that training is the miracle cure to every organisational problem. It isn't, in fact, training must often be supported by other organisational improvements for the desired outcomes to surface.

The analogy we always give is that training is akin to buying seed to transform your yard into a prize-winning garden. Although you've bought the seed, you would need to ensure that the soil is of the right composition and to make sure that the saplings are well-protected from pests and weather hazards. You'd certainly need time to teach others who are assisting you, to tend to the plants with the same care.

Hence, a few key questions need to be answered at the client-end, to help translate training room learning into operational results:

1. Is the problem one that can be solved by training?

Is the problem a result of inherent structural impediments which if removed, would not require training? For instance, are sales contracts being communicated by the Sales Manager to after-sales service and production departments to make sure that key departments know contractual obligations to clients.

2. What results are anticipated from the training?

While all training should ultimately lead to a rise in organisational profitability or effectiveness, it's critical that specific targetted attitudes, skills and knowledge are identified for decision-makers, gate-keepers and consultants. Such a focus puts the key people on the same page, so that when internal marketing goes out to potential participants, no conflicting messages are sent. Should the latter happen, it certainly would have negative effects on the overall success of the training programme.

3. How are results being measured?

Clarity about results requires an equivalent emphasis on the clarity of the measurement systems for success. Kirkpatrick's 4-tiered model of training evaluation showcases the different forms of results and how these are measured. Essentially, his model shows an inverse relationship between data-centric measures and the penetration of training within the organisation. Do all who need to know, know about what results are targetted and how they are measured? If results are to be mapped over time, is there a roadmap for guidance?

4. How is the technology being embedded within the organisation?

Undergoing training is equivalent to buying a new technology. Like we said earlier, it's not enough buying seed. Is there a team championing the use of the technology? Are they suitably trained to handhold the rest? How are key gatekeepers involved in the embedding process? What other organisation-wide innovations or concerns might distract champions or end-users? Are there incentives to promote staff application of the technology?

These questions point to the reality of why it is often wrong to believe that training leads automatically to higher performance.

Noel Tan

Resident Philosopher

(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)

Thinking like an Extremist

"Man built most nobly when limitations were at their greatest."— Frank Lloyd Wright (probably America's best known architect)

Creativity is the process of changing, combining and reapplying existing ideas, so that fresh solutions and perspectives can be achieved. Thus, a creative idea is intuitively recognised for its fresh quality. We also recognise it because it promises a solution despite the constraints which gave rise to the original problematic situation.

One approach to take in order to tap your creativity is to think like an extremist. No, we don't mean turning into a political or religious extremist! We mean THINK of EXTREMES, gain clarity of the problem by changing its scale. EXTREME thinking is represented by the following ways:

1. Change the scale of your resources to the EXTREME minimum
During our Creative Problem-solving workshops, we've noticed that our participants become more inventive and 'out-of-the-box' in their solutions to problems, when we reduce their resource pool to near-scarcity. These resources include time, materials and human. The opposite is true too - in plenty, our participants' behaviour reflects what goes on in most prosperous societies every minute: a false reliance on the quantity of resources, rather than the quality of our thinking. However, when pushed to an EXTREME, limited by resources, fresh approaches emerge.

2. Change the scale of the end-result to the EXTREME maximum

Think of an EXTREME scenario - be the world's largest 24-hr bookstore, develop sustainable life-essential resources for a country, build a fortification that could stand against the wildest of attackers. Well, the first of those situations led to Amazon and the second led to Singapore developing her own 4 'national taps' to ensure a sustainable water supply. As for the 3rd, the barbarians from the Asian steppe entered China by treachery rather than by direct breach of the Great Wall, which is incidentally the only Man-made structure visible from space orbit around Earth.

Common to all 3 examples is that they were achieved despite the perceived limitations of existing resources at point of inception, yet, each represents an inventive approach to developing a capability to overcome a challenge.

In our practice, we find that this mode of thinking is particularly useful for strategic planning, when members are gridlocked by a perception that resources are insufficient.

3. Frame the problem EXTREMELY

Because we get 'de-sensitised' by daily problems, EXTREME Thinking helps elevate a problem to a conscious level or a different level of consciousness We do this by framing the problem EXTREMELY - eg. 'our lack of creativity is a national shame'. If we want to remove the 'shame', our lack of creativity can be addressed by looking for success stories in creativity that could be described as national pride and by understanding what makes them work. Usually, this process leads us to other solutions, rather than giving us the final creative solution.

Be an Extremist today, try these methods out, and start solving problems creatively.

Noel Tan

Resident Philosopher

(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)

Updates and memorable events (Jan 2006 - July 2006)

What a year 2006 has been so far and we are happy to share with you the milestones, quirky or otherwise:

January-February 2006

• Ethan graduated from K1 to P1
• Noel facilitated in the 'Self-Science' programme at St Andrew's Secondary School
  Noel started on the EdD programme at the University of Western Australia, Graduate School of Education
• Noel and Brenda were appointed as Family Life Ambassadors with the Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports
• Trailblazer welcomed Karen Koh as our part-time administrator, on top of facilitation duties

March-April 2006

• We welcomed Edna into our family on March 4th 2006
• Brenda started her 3-mth maternity leave from work
• Trailblazer Trainers welcomed Chee Wei Lin and Tan Swee Suan as programme facilitators
• Trailblazer Trainers signed a research-based Memorandum of Understanding with Innova Junior College, graced by Dr Geil Browning, President, Emergenetics LLC USA
• Noel had a conference with Eric Jensen of Jensen Learning LLC, USA at Changi Airport

May-Jun 2006

• Ethan won a top 10 position in the biennnial Japan Airlines Foundation World Children's Haiku Competition (Singapore phase), out of more than 5000 entries.
• Noel & Brenda promoted Family Life in our own family, by focusing on introducing Ethan to his Singaporean heritage, via heritage trails in the Civic District (How many 6-yr olds have been into the Battle Box, eh?)

Looking forward to sharing with you more updates in 6 months' time.

Noel Tan

Resident Philosopher

(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)

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Authors of the original news story and their publications shall be exclusively held liable. Any corrections to news stories are not mandatory and shall be printed at the discretion of the management of Trailblazer Trainers after evaluation on a case-by-case basis."

Noel Tan

Resident Philosopher

(*All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)