Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

Range of toxicity versus non-toxicity

Focusing on organizational outcomes is not entirely problem-free, however. There is a range of outcomes in any leadership situation. Some results can be very destructive and some very positive. Most leadership episodes will fall in between the really bad and the really good. Seldom is anything perfectly and totally in one extreme or the other of this continuum. If destructive leadership is defined in terms of harmful outcomes, then it is possible for “good” leaders to produce bad outcomes, and for “bad” leaders to produce desirable outcomes. The worst political and business leaders—Mao, Stalin, Charles Keating, Dennis Kozlowski—brought some value to their constituents.³¹ And even highly regarded leaders whose leadership tenures resulted in constructive outcomes sometimes make mistakes—for example, Coca-Cola's respected CEO, Roberto Goizueta, was associated with the “new Coke” debacle.

Hitler led his nation to a devastating conclusion. But he also, at least in the beginning of his tenure, managed to achieve goals that many Germans supported. Toxic leaders are associated with outcomes at the destructive end of the spectrum, while “good” or nontoxic leaders are usually associated with outcomes at the positive end of the spectrum. No leader, and no leadership situation, is perfectly great or perfectly lousy.