Personal Narrative: Toxic Leadership

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If I were to ask a group of individuals who contributed to their growth as a professional many would be able to point to a valued mentor. But what if some of us never received the same type of mentorship, counseling, or coaching? Throughout my nine year career, I was unfortunate to have a toxic leader that would follow me and remain my supervisor. Even though this leader was a toxic, arrogant leader, he contributed greatly to my success and professional career. Ironically the contribution of my success is not owed to the most competent and efficient leader but it is owed to a conceited egotistical leader.

Toxic leadership runs rampant in the military. Not every soldier is fortunate enough to fall under great leadership, some of us are forced to work under egoists. I joined the army when I was seventeen, and I was naïve on how the military and leadership should be. I found myself part taking in demeaning rituals that are considered hazing. Many of the activities were considered a rite of passage or way of initiating us into the unit.
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At this point of my career, I have become more comfortable with my ability as a leader and I knew I wanted to run things differently. I wanted to impact a cultural change on how the leader’s conduct corrective training on the lower enlisted. Even though this same leader was still above me I was no longer influenced by him. I have decided to make a cultural change in how my team leaders and I conduct business. For example, I no longer participated in any of the hazing events. I even went as far as to end these events if I saw them in other squads and teams. My leadership above me did not like the new way I handled business and even questioned my ability to lead the men. But our senior leadership had a hard enough time being able to wake up on time then to truly worry about how I handled the