Toxic Positivity in Leadership and Its Impact in the Workplace

There has been more hype around embracing positivity in life and in the workplace in recent years.  I felt it more so during the Covid-19 pandemic and during the initial endemic stage where work was still very much in an overdrive state.  At work, there was call for the leaders to pay attention to the employees’ wellness and the mad frenzy for HR to think about providing managers with resources to engage their team remotely, and starting new initiatives for the new mode of employee engagement and employees’ well-being.  In the process of doing so, the leaders work towards fostering a positive environment which undoubtedly is a good thing.  But crossing that thin line towards toxic positivity brings the team into a different realm that is counterproductive.

What is Toxic Positivity?

Toxic positivity refers to the excessive emphasis on positive thinking that often comes at the expense of recognising real challenges and negative emotions.  It can range from minimizing others’ concerns to dismissing genuine feelings. While this approach stems from the intention to maintain a positive atmosphere, employees may end up feeling unheard, invalidated, and pressured to mask their true emotions.  This has detrimental effects on both organisations and individuals.

The Impacts of a Positive Only Culture

Decreased Psychological Safety
A positive-only culture creates and environment that lacks psychological safety.  Employees would be hesitant to voice out their concerns, differing views or their challenges due to the fear of being perceived as negative.  One can only think that real risks would be left unaddressed and the team’s growth and creativity stifled.

Emotional Disconnection, Increased Stress and Burnout
With the lack of psychological safety, employees would be pressured to mask their true feelings and end up experiencing a sense of disconnection which stifles authentic connections.  Having to put up a positive front every day, employees are likely to face increased stress, leading to burnout.  This is perhaps the core reason why employee engagement and wellness took such a huge hit during the pandemic.

Erosion of Trust and Morale
When leaders consistently downplay challenges in the bid to maintain a positive work culture, trust and team morale would be eroded.  Leaders who nudge the team to keep doing a good job with the promise that things would be fine, while glossing over the team’s expressed concerns, inadvertently fractures the trust and hampers collaborative problem-solving.

Perceived Impact on Career Growth
In a culture of toxic positivity, aspiring leaders or new leaders might be hesitant to speak up as they would likely worry that their expressed concerns would be misconstrued as a lack of resilience.  As such, they might falsely believe that if they do not always frame situations positively, their leadership abilities would not be reflected well and impact on their  career advancement.

Strategies to Avoid Toxic Positivity

Leaders can take the following 3 proactive steps to foster a more balanced and authentic workplace culture and minimise the effects of toxic positivity.

1. Personal Development of Emotional Intelligence.  This calls for the leader to be comfortable with his and others varied emotions.  In another words, he is to flex his abilities to recognise and validate different emotions, not just the positive ones.  He would need to develop active listening skills and to respond to the team’s concern with empathy. 
2. Create a Safe Space for Open Dialogue.  With consistent validation and respect given to expressed concerns, differing opinions and emotions, a leader will be able to create a safe space where employees feel safe to share their authentic feelings.  This creates authentic connections and supports better employee engagement.
3. Model Authentic Behaviour.  It is important for a leader to also model the authenticity in his own expressions¹.  This could be done through sharing his own challenges, emotions and learning experiences, demonstrating that it is okay not to be positive all the time.  For sure, the team would be able to relate to him better, knowing that he is as human as they are.

Beyond these steps, leaders will have to continue to calibrate their leadership practices that foster a balance of positive outlook and realism with a healthy support system in place where both success and failures are celebrated.  This builds a more empathetic and cohesive work culture that could ride the waves of challenges. 

Lastly, leaders will have to continuously hone their leadership practice and learn to flex different leadership styles for different situations to promote a healthy work culture. 

Footnote
1. A leader could practice a healthy connection with his own emotions through regular reflective practice and journaling.  This simple practice not only supports healthy development of emotional intelligence, but also forms a good learning practice for leadership development.