When performance slips, many executives look down the organizational chart for someone to blame. Employees are accused of lacking motivation. Teams are criticized for bickering, missing deadlines, or refusing to collaborate.
This information often comes from the same managers who are complaining about their people while ignoring the conditions they created.
Employees certainly have to take responsibility for their performance. But when smart, creative, and previously dependable people begin checking out, leaders should resist the convenient conclusion that they suddenly stopped caring.
It’s the manager
Sometimes the problem is the job. More often, it is the manager. Gallup’s latest findings should get every executive’s attention. Only 31 percent of U.S. employees and 20 percent of employees globally were engaged in 2025. More importantly, Gallup reports that managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in engagement among teams. In other words, the quality of the manager largely determines the quality of the employee experience.
If you inspect the management culture closely, you may find that poor performance is a predictable human response to how people are being led.
Here are five toxic management behaviors that drain energy, weaken trust, and eventually drive good people toward the exit.
1. People are treated as objects, not human beings
In toxic cultures, people become head count, labor costs, or resources to be deployed. Their workloads are discussed, but their well-being is not. Their output matters; the human being producing it barely enters the conversation.
This does not mean managers should become therapists or abandon accountability. It means they should notice when someone is drowning, understand what is creating unnecessary strain, and remove barriers that prevent good work.
Gallup now includes respect and organizational concern for well-being among the employee needs it measures. Yet as of May 2026, only 40 percent of U.S. employees said someone at work cared about them as a person.
When people feel disposable, they protect their energy, withhold ideas, and keep one eye on the job market.
2. Employees are forced to compete against one another
Healthy competition can sharpen performance. Internal systems that turn colleagues into rivals usually accomplish something else: They teach people to hoard information, protect their territory, and quietly root against one another.
The problem often begins with performance systems that reward individual numbers while executives preach teamwork. Employees are not confused by this contradiction. They follow the incentive.
Research conducted by Heidi Gardner, distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School, has warned that forced-ranking systems can kill both collaboration and morale because they pressure employees to compete for position, compensation, and status.
If collaboration matters, managers should measure it. Reward people for sharing expertise, helping colleagues succeed, and contributing to outcomes larger than their own scorecard.
3. Managers focus almost entirely on what is wrong
Some managers believe their job is to patrol the workplace looking for mistakes. When something goes well, they say nothing. When something goes wrong, they arrive with a magnifying glass and a lecture.
This is lazy management. People need honest correction, but they also need to know which behaviors they should repeat. Research published in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics found that positive feedback improved subsequent performance, while negative feedback alone showed no performance effect.
The answer is not empty praise. Employees can smell fake appreciation before the manager finishes the sentence. Give specific recognition tied to the person’s contribution: what they did, why it mattered, and how it helped the team or customer.
4. Managers steal the spotlight
The team develops the idea, solves the problem, survives the deadline, and delights the client. Then the manager walks into the executive meeting and starts using the word “I.”
Nothing drains discretionary effort faster.
Credit-taking managers may enjoy the limelight, but they pay for it in lost trust. Employees quickly learn that their manager is using their talent to build a personal brand. The next time that manager needs extra effort, the team will remember who received the applause.
Strong managers redirect the spotlight. They name the people responsible, explain their contributions, and make sure senior leaders know where the value originated. Giving away credit does not make a leader look smaller. It shows that the leader knows how to build a team capable of producing excellent work.
5. Managers go missing when leadership is needed
They hide behind closed doors, fill their calendars with meetings, and become conveniently unavailable when employees need a decision, direction, or help resolving conflict. The disappearance is often driven by insecurity. Avoiding the issue feels safer than exposing what they do not know.
Meanwhile, the team works around the leadership vacuum. Decisions slow down. Resentment grows. Conflicts become personal because the person responsible for addressing them never enters the room.
A manager does not need to hover over employees. But accessibility and an open door matter. Set predictable times for decisions, hold regular one-on-ones, and address tension before it becomes team folklore. When the situation is difficult, move toward it and go through the eye of the storm together with your team.
How to stop promoting toxic bosses
Toxic management is rarely just a “bad manager” problem. It is a senior leadership problem, because someone hired, promoted, rewarded, or tolerated that manager. The solution starts with changing what qualifies someone to lead.
Organizations still promote people because they deliver strong numbers, understand the operation, or possess valuable technical expertise. Those qualities matter, but they do not prove that someone can be trusted with the performance and well-being of other human beings.
Character has to carry real weight. Warren Buffett famously advised employers to look for integrity, intelligence, and energy, warning that without integrity, the other two qualities can become liabilities.
Research supports the business case behind that advice. A meta-analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that ethical leadership contributes meaningful value in predicting employees’ attitudes, performance, and workplace behavior. The influence of integrity is not sentimental; it shows up in how people respond and perform.
Executives should therefore assess prospective managers for observable evidence:
- Do their actions match their words?
- Do they share credit?
- Do people feel safe bringing them bad news?
- Can they correct someone without stripping away dignity?
- Have they helped other people grow, or merely outperformed them?
The behavior senior leaders tolerate from managers eventually becomes the culture employees experience. If your best people are disengaging, stop asking what is wrong with them long enough to examine who is leading them.
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This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com.
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