By Vidya Murali
Toxic workplace patterns often arise from strengths taken too far – loyalty, ambition, or passion – yet they undermine trust, well-being, and performance. Present in any organisation, they manifest through micromanagement, silos, blind spots, or ego-driven politics. Recognising and addressing these dynamics enables leaders to build healthier, innovative, and resilient cultures.
Why Toxic Patterns Matter Now
Every workplace aspires to be productive, innovative, and rewarding. Yet even the most admired organisations can develop toxic undercurrents. These patterns don’t always start with malice – they often grow out of loyalty, ambition, or passion taken too far. But left unchecked, they erode trust, damage mental health, and reduce performance.
Toxicity isn’t limited to high-growth start-ups. It can surface in global corporates, small family businesses, or government departments. Wherever people work under pressure, with competing priorities and imperfect leadership, toxic dynamics can emerge. The good news? They can be identified and managed – if leaders know what to look for.
Five Toxic Patterns That Undermine Teams
1. Unhealthy Loyalty
Leaders often surround themselves with trusted long-timers. Loyalty can be valuable, but when it blinds decision-makers to skill gaps, it blocks progress. In corporates, this shows up as “favourites” who resist change; in smaller firms, it may be early employees shielded from accountability.
Warning sign: talented new hires leave because they cannot break through entrenched networks.
2. The Micromanager
Micromanagement is one of the most pervasive toxic patterns. Leaders who struggle to delegate undermine trust and crush initiative. In corporates, this may manifest as layers of approvals; in smaller organisations, it can be a founder or owner scrutinising every detail.
Warning sign: employees second-guess themselves, feel disempowered, and spend more time reporting than delivering.
3. Siloed Execution
When departments or teams operate in isolation, duplication and wasted effort follow. Large companies suffer from bureaucracy; smaller organisations suffer from a lack of coordination. Both lead to the same outcome: busy teams producing little impact.
Warning sign: employees cannot articulate how their work connects to broader goals. Multiple teams trying to solve the same or similar problems becomes a pattern.
4. Blind Spots at the Top
The qualities that drive success – conviction, ambition, attention to detail – can, over time, become liabilities. A CEO’s passion becomes rigidity, a senior manager’s high standards slip into perfectionism, or a board’s focus on numbers blinds it to culture.
Warning sign: decisions made without input, unrealistic deadlines, or a culture where “sacrifice” is valued over results.
5. Big Egos and Politics
Status sensitivity and self-preservation are universal human traits. When senior hires protect turf rather than collaborate, energy is wasted on politics. In corporates, this may look like endless steering committees; in smaller firms, it may be open disputes between senior leaders.
Warning sign: delayed decisions, diluted strategies, and high turnover among rising talent.
How Toxicity Shows Up
Toxic patterns manifest in behaviours long before they appear in metrics. Common symptoms include:
- “Always on” culture, where people feel guilty logging off.
- “Us vs. them” dynamics between departments or teams.
- Lack of psychological safety: mistakes hidden, gossip amplified.
- Busy but unproductive work, disconnected from strategy.
- Territorialism: protecting positions and status over outcomes.
If these become visible in employee churn, mental health issues, or poor business performance, it means the underlying problems have already taken root.
How to Break the Cycle as an Individual
Grow Your Influence
Challenging entrenched patterns directly can backfire. Instead, build your own influence – through expertise, allies, and credibility. Recognise where power really sits in your workplace: titles, knowledge, relationships, or access to information. Strengthening your position makes you harder to sideline.
Communicate Without Escalating
Feedback that triggers defensiveness rarely changes behaviour. Here, Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (NVC)[1] framework is invaluable. It emphasises four steps:
- Share what you observed.
- Express how it made you feel.
- Clarify the need that was unmet.
- Make a specific request.
By grounding conversations in observations, feelings, and needs rather than blame, NVC creates space for dialogue instead of defensiveness. It is a practical tool for addressing micromanagement, bias, or unhealthy loyalty without escalating conflict.
Create Structures for Alignment
To counter silos, put in place mechanisms for visibility and accountability. This could be cross-functional teams, shared dashboards, or simply clearer lines of ownership. The aim is to ensure everyone can see how their work connects to broader goals.
Address Leadership Blind Spots Carefully
Leaders may not realise when their strengths become weaknesses. If their behaviour undermines your work, assess the impact honestly. Sometimes it can be managed; sometimes it signals a need to move on. Awareness and options are your best safeguards.
Neutralise Egos with Pragmatism
When big personalities dominate, neutrality is your ally. Position yourself as a bridge-builder. Ask pragmatic questions – “What’s the cost of delaying this decision?” or “What’s the smallest way we can test this idea?” – to shift the conversation from status to outcomes.
Building Cultures That Resist Toxicity as a Leader
While individuals can protect themselves, real change comes from leaders shaping healthier environments.
Psychological safety is the foundation of high performance. Without it, innovation withers. Leaders can model this by admitting mistakes, seeking feedback, and valuing those who speak truth to power.
Hire and promote givers, not takers. As Adam Grant highlights in Give and Take, givers spark collaboration, resilience, and innovation, while takers erode trust and weaken teams. An organisation’s long-term health depends on rewarding sustainable generosity rather than short-term self-promotion.
Reward sustainable performance. Recognise problem-solving, continuous learning, and long-term impact—not just “heroic” short bursts. Use data and objective feedback, rather than perception, to guide promotions and recognition.
Invest in diverse leadership. Representation across gender, ethnicity, neurodiversity, and professional background helps reduce blind spots and groupthink. This is not about showcasing diversity in brand photos but ensuring leadership teams genuinely reflect and live it.
Toxicity can creep into any workplace, from start-up to multinational. It is rarely about “bad people” – more often, it is about good qualities taken too far, or leadership blind spots left unchecked.
Leaders who learn to spot and manage these patterns protect not just their people but also the long-term success of their organisations. The payoff is healthier employees, stronger innovation, and workplaces that people are proud to be part of.
The cost of ignoring toxic patterns is high. The opportunity to address them is transformative.
Vidya Murali
