The toxic leader paradox

The real reason that terrible leaders get ahead, plus how one company hopes to offset inflation costs for employees

This week’s lead story is written by Cassie Werber, a senior reporter at Quartz. She digs into the surprising reasons that companies tend to promote the wrong people into management roles, creating leaders who are ineffective, toxic, or both.

When organizational psychologist Mary-Clare Race studied personality disorders at work, she came to a surprising conclusion: A lot of the time, toxic leaders don’t get ahead despite their problematic behavior. They succeed because of it.

Race is now chief innovation and product officer at LHH, a recruitment and coaching company with 8,000 staff worldwide. She says dysfunctional leadership has its roots in how we as a society view career progression, and how companies support people once they’re on the leadership track.

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