Written By Cari Borden

You don’t need a broken system to destroy a thriving company; you just need a few toxic leaders and an executive team willing to look the other way.

Let’s call it what it is: Complicity.

Toxic leadership doesn’t usually start at the top. But it survives there. It’s nurtured in silence. Watered with inaction. And before you know it, the company culture has withered, the star players have checked out, and all that’s left is a shell of performative values and recycled mission statements.

🚨 Here’s what complicity looks like:

• Ignoring high turnover in a single department.
• Letting “results-driven” managers bulldoze their teams with fear and favoritism.
• Promoting dysfunction because it “gets things done.”
• Rewarding loud voices instead of effective ones.
• Watching culture burn while quoting engagement survey scores like gospel.

💡 Meanwhile, here’s what it costs you:

• Your future MVPs are already looking for exits.
• Your “employee of the month” is questioning their sanity.
• Your rising stars are learning that toxic wins, so they either adapt or leave.
• And your brand? Slowly bleeding credibility and trust.

🤔 So why stay silent?

Because accountability is uncomfortable. Because admitting there’s a problem means stepping into the fix. Because some execs are too close to the very leaders doing the damage.

But here’s the thing: silence isn’t neutrality. It’s permission.

If you’re in the C-suite and still pretending toxic leadership is someone else’s problem, you’ve become part of the problem.

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🔁 Time for a culture audit.

Ask yourself:

• Who are we promoting?
• What behaviors are we tolerating?
• Is our silence protecting the business, or protecting the toxic?

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📣 If this hits close to home and you’re ready to create leadership that actually leads, reach out. I coach, consult, and call out the blind spots before they become resignation letters.