Toxic organizations refer to workplaces or institutions that exhibit dysfunctional, harmful, or detrimental behaviors, practices, and cultures. These organizations tend to have elements that negatively impact the well-being, productivity, and success of their employees. In the rest of this short article, some of the defining characteristics of a toxic organization are briefly explained.
Dire mistakes for start-ups stem from the misalignment between the individual team members and the founders. Founders that have the following attitudes towards team members, that could inevitably be considered as NOT DOs and so nurturing a toxic and unsuccessful environment for a start up.
Founders that fall in love with themselves and so their startup ideas… This phenomena is the most critical barrier for a founders to overcome and unfortunately this is a solid character issue therefore a case for the therapists. Those type of founders might attract good talent and think having a “dream team” as a showcase to investors, however in reality they obsessively believe that their path is always accurate.
The second major mistake for founders is choosing the key staff according to obedience and flattery, not according to merit and performance. This is again related with above mentioned narcissist character, but more of a self confidence and trust issue. It is a common traditional problem that is observed mostly in Eastern cultures, where truly incapable and incompetent team member is always preferred over a challenging and scientific professional. However, not being able to retain the first class, prudent team is already the biggest hurdle in front of success. Founders, choosing indirect communication through incompetent team members as a vehicle to control the team create continuous fractures and feeling of inequality among team members.
Last but not the least major mistake consistent with above is the Founder’s opaque approach and reluctance in sharing information or selectively sharing among team members. In absence of collective intelligence and decision making, failure of the team and therefore the execution is inevitable.
This is only a summary of factors that contribute to failure of even greatest ideas is a demotivating environment, where employees will not enjoy and work with passion. If you are a part of a team portrayed above, then leaving for another venture might be a good idea.
