Opinion • When our society gives a platform to toxic leaders

The battle between world leaders is being fought on a razor’s edge. The polls point in two directions and every self-respecting individual looks with great bewilderment at the persistence with which Putin expresses the caricature he has become of himself.

“He is the prototype of the toxic leader and, based on his impactful role, a real threat to our society,” say Frank De Mey and Stephan Soens, both Partners at Accord Group Belgium, subsidiary of VALPEO, a leadership advisory firm.

The American writer, professor and consultant in the field of organizational theory Peter Drucker sees toxic leadership as a process in which leaders cause serious and lasting damage through their destructive behavior and/or dysfunctional personality traits, both to their ‘non-followers’ and ultimately to their ‘followers’ and their own organization(s).

Toxic leaders are reprehensible to those who have to endure their actions without accepting them and often heroes to others for whom they have created the ‘illusion of something to hold on to’ and a reason to exist.