Toxic culture doesn’t start where you think it does

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THE ART & SCIENCE OF LEADING SELF
The Power of Shifting the Paradigm

My friend, each new headline about toxic workplace culture reinforces what I've seen in my years of coaching executives: you're approaching the problem from the wrong angle.

The Inside-Out Leadership Revolution 🌱

Despite countless leadership workshops and trainings, toxic leadership persists because you're missing something crucial: self-leadership as the foundation.

Toxic leaders don't just impact others negatively. Their negative impact begins with how they lead themselves. Their inner world directly shapes their leadership reality.

Think about it. A leader who:

• Can't regulate their emotions under pressure can't create psychological safety for their team

• Lacks self-awareness can't truly see others

• Hasn't confronted their own disempowering beliefs will unconsciously project those limitations onto their team

This is why traditional leadership development often fails. Programs focused only on external behaviors miss the internal operating system driving those behaviors.

Leaders simply cannot unlock for others what they haven't first unlocked for themselves. 👈🏽

The Self-Leadership Connection 🔑

The absence of self-leadership creates predictable patterns in executive teams:

• Meetings become battlegrounds for positional power rather than spaces for strategic collaboration

• Cross-functional initiatives stall as leaders protect territorial boundaries

• Dissenting voices go silent as psychological safety disappears

• Decision quality suffers as fear drives conversations underground

• Executive burnout becomes normalized as sustainable leadership practices are ignored

The root cause? Not a lack of technical knowledge or strategic insight, but a fundamental gap in self-leadership capacity.

The Transformation 💫

When C-suite teams invest in developing self-leadership, the transformation starts with the individual, which always shifts the team dynamics:

• Executive meetings shift from positional debates to genuine strategic collaboration

• Cross-functional alignment becomes possible because leaders stop protecting territory

• Decision quality improves as psychological safety makes it safe to voice concerns

• Executive burnout decreases as leaders develop sustainable leadership practices

This transformation then cascades throughout the organization, improving retention, innovation, and resilience during change.

It's not magic. It's the natural result of leaders who have developed:

• The ability to observe themselves

• Leadership practices that cultivate present-moment awareness

• Tools for emotional self-regulation when facing uncertainty

• Frameworks for examining beliefs that shape decision-making

The journey from toxic leadership to transformative leadership begins not with another workshop on external behaviors, but with an internal shift in how leaders lead themselves.

FROM INSIGHT TO ACTION
Putting It Into Practice

Your Self-Leadership Practice

If you're serious about addressing toxic leadership, start with these 3 reflective practices:

1. Emotional Awareness Audit: For one week, notice when you feel emotionally triggered in leadership contexts. What patterns emerge? What specific situations consistently challenge your emotional regulation?

2. Belief Examination: Identify one leadership challenge you're currently facing. Ask yourself: "What beliefs am I holding about this situation that might be constraining how I'm responding?" Then ask: "What might be possible if this belief weren't true?"

3. Self-Leadership Check: Before your next executive meeting, take 5 minutes to check in with yourself. Notice your mental state, emotional state, and physical sensations. How might these be influencing how you show up as a leader?

Remember, your development of others cannot exceed your own development. Your journey toward more effective leadership begins with how you lead yourself.

DEEPENING YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Resources for You

 🧠 For research-backed insights on the link between self-leadership and organizational effectiveness, this journal article provides valuable frameworks. (Link)

🔍 This practical guide from IMD explores the fundamentals of self-leadership and why it matters more than ever in today's leadership landscape. (Link)

⚡️ Want to identify toxic leadership traits and learn how to address them? This comprehensive resource offers practical guidance. (Link)

🌟 Stanford University's research on how the human mind shapes reality offers fascinating insights into how your perception affects your leadership. (Link)

EXCELLENCE UNBOUNDED
How I Can Help You

High-performing executive teams don’t happen by chance. They happen by design.

Aligned Senior Leaders Are:

✅ 1.9x more likely to achieve above-average financial performance
✅ 2.5x more likely to have satisfied and engaged employees

Aligned Companies Are:

✅ 58% faster revenue growth
✅ 72% more profitable

Misaligned companies underperform in the following ways:

❌ 50% lower ROIC
❌ 18% lower EBITDA
❌ 25% loss of revenue
❌ Reduced productivity
❌ Slower strategic execution

Book a call to learn more about The Executive Alignment Playbook 🚀, an immersive, experiential leadership program.

Realign your leadership team. Accelerate execution. Drive measurable results.

🎤 Speaking Engagements: My mom can attest to the fact that I LOVE to talk. 😂 Now, I put that talent to work delivering talks on Mindset, Courage, Resilience, & Innovation.

A few past clients include KraftHeinz, Amazon Women @ Payments, PAHEi, & the Panamá Chapter of the International Coaching Federation (I delivered this talk in Spanish).

If you are interested in having me speak at your event, please fill out this form.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD 📢

Until next Sunday,

Shawnette