Leadership and…the Cascade Stress Effect

The Toxic Stress of Controlling Leadership

If we use fear-based leadership, bullying, command-and-control leadership, belittling, sabotage or other forms of psychological violence, or allow them to be used by others in our organizations, we create the opposite of a supportive, productive learning organization. We create an environment of toxic stress that harms people and the organization.

Controlling leadership behaviors set off a cascade effect in organizations that looks like this:

We create a toxic, constantly stressful environment
which reduces people’s ability to learn and remember
and think creatively.
We get fear-based compliance
without engagement
which leaves people not doing their best work.
We get a low-trust culture
which leads to
people spending time worrying
individually and in groups.
We get poor individual
and group performance
and poor business outcomes.
We reduce the capacity of the business
to accomplish its mission
through people.

Detailed research about the impact of stress on health, the brain, learning, memory and performance may be found at many websites including the following:

The Franklin Institute Website

Brain Rules by John Medina

American Psychological Association

Harvard University

Articles explaining the negative effects of controlling leadership on the organization include:

Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

Center for Creative Leadership white paper exploring the impact of workplace stress on leaders: StressofLeadership.pdf