Why do we have ineffective teams?
This was the opening question posed by Shawn Welch, founder of SWCo, a leadership training and development organization during the “How to Flush Toxic Leadership Down the Drain” EDUSession held Tuesday afternoon.
The answer comes down to ineffective leaders, whose personalities, moods, and work styles trickle down within companies and organizations. “The Gallup Company found that over 70% of the variant when it comes to employee engagement is because of leadership. So basically, when we think about this, leaders have the greatest influence on employee engagement,” Welch notes.
To prevent becoming a toxic leader—and to prevent the effects of toxic leadership from taking hold of your company or organization—Welch recommends framing self-awareness and personal growth as a lifelong journey rather than a reachable destination. “Think about self-awareness like going up one of these escalators, backwards. The minute you stop progressing, the minute you stop growing in self-awareness, you start to go backwards and you lose it,” he warns.
Welch also shared an acronym intended to help attendees hold themselves accountable for their self-awareness journey, aptly titled the F.L.U.S.H. method. It encompasses the importance of asking for feedback, listening to and understanding those you work with, sticking to self-development that prevents you from drifting into toxic habits, and humility, which grounds you as you collaborate with your team.
No matter which area attractions professionals choose to focus on, Welch encourages attendees to take what they learn—either from themselves or from those around them—to heart. Welch concluded with a powerful quote that encouraged the room to look deeply inside themselves in the face of critique: “There is a kernel of truth in every criticism. Look for it, and when you find it, rejoice in its value.”
