He was brilliant at his craft.
But, his team was quitting one by one in a span of 6 months.
His peers had written him off.
HR had a file on him, “toxic micromanager”, “ruthless” - words they used.
And they called me to "fix him".
When I came in, I saw a man who was genuinely lost and confused.
"I don't understand why this keeps happening to me."
He wasn't being defensive, nor was he being arrogant.
He was actually defeated, almost broken.
This was a man who had been told his whole career that high performance meant one thing:
Get it done, fast, my way or the highway. No excuses.
Nobody ever told him that the way you get it done is the whole job.
So we pulled the data.
360 feedback. Every voice of every team member he'd ever led.
And what came back wasn't a picture of a toxic person.
It was a picture of someone who had never once been taught how to lead.
He only knew one style.
Autocratic. Follow this plan.
It worked when the building was on fire.
It destroyed everything when it wasn't.
What he didn't know was that leadership isn't one setting.
It's ten different situations.
And the best leaders know which one the moment calls for.
So that's where we started.
Three months later?
Complete 360.
A different leader, one who finally had the tools to be the leader he always wanted to be.
The teams were re-hired, they stopped leaving.
People started asking to work for him.
He now holds the highest EVS scores.
We promote people into leadership and call that leadership development.
We label people toxic when they're actually just untrained.
And we lose brilliant, high-performing humans to a system that never gave them a fair shot.
He wasn't toxic.
He was never shown what great looks like.
There's a difference.
And it's our job, as leaders, as organisations, as humans, to know how to step in and support it.
Share this with someone who needs an upgrade.
⚠️ Save this now, use it later. Get more like these (
----
👋🏽 I'm Nina Devouge
💰 I help build More Human leaders whose team love with The HOL SystemTM
➕ Connect to join the movement - Link in Bio.
#leadershipdevelopment #micromanagement #transformationalleadership #teammanagement #effectiveleadership
But, his team was quitting one by one in a span of 6 months.
His peers had written him off.
HR had a file on him, “toxic micromanager”, “ruthless” - words they used.
And they called me to "fix him".
When I came in, I saw a man who was genuinely lost and confused.
"I don't understand why this keeps happening to me."
He wasn't being defensive, nor was he being arrogant.
He was actually defeated, almost broken.
This was a man who had been told his whole career that high performance meant one thing:
Get it done, fast, my way or the highway. No excuses.
Nobody ever told him that the way you get it done is the whole job.
So we pulled the data.
360 feedback. Every voice of every team member he'd ever led.
And what came back wasn't a picture of a toxic person.
It was a picture of someone who had never once been taught how to lead.
He only knew one style.
Autocratic. Follow this plan.
It worked when the building was on fire.
It destroyed everything when it wasn't.
What he didn't know was that leadership isn't one setting.
It's ten different situations.
And the best leaders know which one the moment calls for.
So that's where we started.
Three months later?
Complete 360.
A different leader, one who finally had the tools to be the leader he always wanted to be.
The teams were re-hired, they stopped leaving.
People started asking to work for him.
He now holds the highest EVS scores.
We promote people into leadership and call that leadership development.
We label people toxic when they're actually just untrained.
And we lose brilliant, high-performing humans to a system that never gave them a fair shot.
He wasn't toxic.
He was never shown what great looks like.
There's a difference.
And it's our job, as leaders, as organisations, as humans, to know how to step in and support it.
Share this with someone who needs an upgrade.
⚠️ Save this now, use it later. Get more like these (
----
👋🏽 I'm Nina Devouge
💰 I help build More Human leaders whose team love with The HOL SystemTM
➕ Connect to join the movement - Link in Bio.
#leadershipdevelopment #micromanagement #transformationalleadership #teammanagement #effectiveleadership
Shared byCasey Lim - 3 days ago
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