Preventing Toxic Leadership: Steps Any Employee Can Take Today - Alain de Sales

Sharna speaks with Dr. Alain de Sales on how employees can stop patterns of destructive leadership. Alain describes the toxic triangle framework made up of leaders, susceptible followers and context. Through several case studies, he shows how specific, methodical, and sequential acts of courage can interrupt harm and take down abusive power structures at any scale and in any domain, including business, politics, and social movements.

Alain de Sales is a Senior Lecturer in Queensland University of Technology’s Graduate School of Business. His PhD examined how courageous followers stand up to destructive leadership. Some of his previous consulting clients include the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Development Victoria.

You’ll learn:

• Why it’s necessary to understand courage as a functional skill that can be practiced
• When and how to build coalitions both inside and outside your domain
• Why documenting destructive behavior matters

Connect with Alain on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaindesales

 References in this Episode

Mary Parker Follett was a management theorist who introduced the concept of followers as distinct from leaders in the 1920s.

Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon papers revealing the atrocities of the Vietnam war. 

The courageous actions of several people during the Watergate scandal ultimately contributed to President Richard Nixon’s resignation just before he could be impeached.
 
 Gaslit Nation is co-hosted by independent journalists Sarah Kendzior & Andrea Chalupa
www.gaslitnationpod.com

Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower
 
 M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth
 
"You can’t be neutral on a moving train." – Howard Zinn