Announcing a New, Informative and Leading-Edge 60 min In-Company Executive Briefing on the ‘Dark
Side’ vs the ‘Bright side’ of personality for all HR Directors, HR Professionals,
Specialist Risk Consultants, Venture Capitalists and Executive Search/Recruitment Consultants
Toxic Bosses and How to Spot Them
"We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or
disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness, and arrogance don’t belong here."
"Our Values - Respect" Enron 1998 Annual Report.
Who are the pinstripe culprits?
Besides being a source of public fascination and notoriety, a list of business executives who
exhibit potentially problematic personalities might include: Andrew Fastow (Enron), Carly Fiorina
(HP), Conrad Black (Hollinger), Calisto Tanzi (Parmalat) or Bernie Ebbers (Wordcom)? Toxic leaders
are far more common and successful than most people realise. They are found in almost every workplace,
are often successful yet can be very, very destructive. The more senior the executive the greater the
potential danger! They typically masquerade as seemingly ‘normal’ high achievers yet in
actuality could be narcissistic managers, pinstripe sociopaths, or the least numerous yet by far the
most lethal are corporate psychopaths!
What can we learn about them?
Lets say you are seeking someone to fill a key leadership, senior management, top sales or board
position? You would want someone who, amongst other qualities, is fearless, charismatic, dynamic,
calm under pressure and full of new ideas? The chosen candidate from interview is invariably charming,
smart, enthusiastic, intelligent and has all the right answers (and questions for that matter!). Problem
solved right? Maybe not! Although toxic leaders come in many different shades and whilst some traits are
more damaging than others these skilled social predators are an unsettling combination of the charming
and the chilling.
What do they have in common?
Being experts in impression management, they have a talent for reading people quickly, identifying
their vulnerabilities and hot buttons (and pushing them!), and are often eloquent verbal communicators.
Some telltale warning signs may include: deliberate deception, covert manipulation, flagrant disregard
of rules, a grandiose sense of entitlement, callousness and superficiality, public humiliation and blaming
others, lacking in empathy, remorse, guilt, shame and fear, and are accomplished pathological liars. Perhaps
that reminds you of someone you know? They may enter the organisation recruited as corporate saviours or
earmarked as rising stars but soon start to abuse the trust of employees, manipulate their managers and
create a workplace shambles.
How can I help you?
Since these people are the ultimate experts in presenting themselves as something they are not - ruthlessly
and selfishly seeking power, money, prestige and control whilst maliciously exploiting other people and
plundering organisational resources. Increasing compliance, Sarbanes-Oxley and CSR make it even more
important than ever to identify them. Worryingly the modern corporation is the perfect breeding ground
for these dishonest, nasty and unscrupulous rogues. It is therefore essential that you learn how to protect
your own, and your clients, hard won professional reputation, integrity and loyalty, maintain emotional
wellbeing and guard your wallet. This talk based on 25 years of practical experience and up-to-the-minute
academic research will reveal their secrets and outline how to identify these people (this is no easy matter
since even experts can be fooled) and provide practical step-by-step guidance about how to best manage them.
Speaker: David Norman
David is an executive master coach, speaker, trainer, consultant and author. His people work over the
past 12/13 years has been largely around: leadership development, behaviour change, communications skills,
accelerated learning and career growth (www.LeadershipDynamix.com). For the previous 15 years he was a
business management consultant. His professional work on the complexity, difficulty and serious implications
profiling the ‘dark’, ‘negative’ or ‘flawed’ side of personality in
business and its organisational impact however stretches back 25 years. He holds a BCom degree major in
organisational psychology (theoretical psychology), holds various psychotherapy certifications and is a
certified trainer and master practitioner of neuro linguistic programming (practical psychology).
How to book this in-company talk?
Designed as an exclusive confidential high-impact 60 min (45 min PowerPoint/15 min Q&A) executive
briefing for HR Directors, HR Professionals, Risk Consultants and Executive Search/Recruitment Consultants.
At present this talk is only available in-company at any location in the UK or Europe. Please contact
David Norman directly for more details (availability, fees and discounts, handouts, related services,
etc): DNorman.DNA@dial.pipex.com and +44 (0)1932
872433/872741.
Specialist ‘Dark Side/Toxic People’ services available:
(for HR Directors, HR professionals, Risk Consultants and Executive Search/Recruitment Consultants)
- Executive Briefings – as above
- Consulting – 24/7 support
- Training - ½ day in-company ‘awareness’ training
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