EP 102: Toxic Leadership: The True Cost of Workplace Trauma with Mita Mallick

The Unburdened Leader

Many of us are familiar with the kind of person who easily earns the moniker ‘toxic’ and instills fear, rage, and frustration in those around them.

What do you do when you work with a toxic leader?

How do you feel when toxic leaders continue to get promoted and receive accolades?

And what do you do when others make excuses for these toxic leaders, like saying their skill set or network is too important to the organization and you have to “take the good with the bad?”

Toxic leaders and cultures take a toll on you, especially when you have your own relational wounding history. You may try to speak up or feel shut down, but there’s another common theme: How betrayed you feel when your experiences are met with silence, inaction, or retribution.

We're at a critical moment regarding leading, accountability, and culture. But one thing that still feels constant is the impact of our history with relational wounding and relational trauma, and how that impacts how, or if, we speak up in the face of injustices from toxic leaders and toxic work culture.

Today’s guest wrote a book on the impact of toxic leaders and cultures, including how we often protect toxic leaders at great expense to the staff and the business. As someone who was bullied both as a child and in the workplace, she has some very special insight into this all-too-common experience.

Mita Mallick is a corporate change-maker with a track record of transforming businesses. She has had an extensive career as a marketer in the beauty and consumer product goods space, fiercely advocating for the inclusion and representation of Black and Brown communities. Her book, Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths to Transform Your Workplace, is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Seller.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The practical toll on the business of enabling toxic leaders to continue to manage teams
• The psychological and physical impact of the workplace trauma created by working under toxic leaders
• How people end up in environments that recreate the harmful relational patterns of their past
• Why those with more power in the workplace need to speak up on behalf of others
• How executive coaching can be used as a Band-Aid to cover toxic behavior
• How guilt and empathy for the teammates we’d leave behind can keep us stuck in toxic environments

Learn more about Mita Mallick:

• Connect with Mita on LinkedIn
• Brown Table Talk Podcast
• Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths to Transform Your Workplace

Learn more about Rebecca:

• rebeccaching.com
• Work With Rebecca
• Sign up for the weekly Unburdened Leader Email.

Resources:

• Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier, Marisa Meltzer
• Sia - Unstoppable
• Breaking Bad