Blog

As we get closer to International Women’s Day, I feel compelled to share a less comfortable reality that continues to surface in my research and in my work with clients across North America: women are disproportionately impacted by toxic leadership at work. Let me be clear: toxic leadership is not gender-specific. Anyone can work for a toxic boss, and anyone can display toxic behavior. My research and experience points to the fact that a female leader is just as likely to be

Over the past several years, one theme has surfaced repeatedly in my work as an organizational psychologist, coach, and speaker: people don’t leave jobs—they leave toxic bosses . And yet, so many professionals stay far longer than they should, convincing themselves that things will improve, that they’re being “too sensitive,” or that this is simply the cost of success.  That’s why I wrote I Wish I’d Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating and Escaping a Toxic Boss, w

In my years as an organizational psychologist and career coach, I’ve listened to countless stories about bosses who bend reality, shift blame, and create chaos through deception. The Dishonest Manipulator is one of the most insidious toxic boss types you’ll encounter in the workplace. Their tactics might not always be obvious at first, but the impact on your well-being and career can be profound.  What Is a Dishonest Manipulator—and How Do You Recognize One?   This toxic boss

Toxic leaders don’t all look the same. Some command the room with charisma, and others quietly drain your confidence over time. Through my research and work with professionals navigating unhealthy workplaces, I’ve come to recognize eight distinct toxic boss types, and the Narcissistic Boss is one of the most common of them all.  The American Psychological Association describes narcissism as a “pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, an

In today’s challenging labor market, “networking” has become a common recommendation to cut through the masses of people applying online. We’re told to build our networks, grow our contacts, and “get ourselves out there.” But after years of coaching leaders and professionals across industries, I’ve come to see a profound difference between networking  and building allies , and I want to share these differences in this month’s blog.  Both are useful—both can open doors—but the

Continuing my series on the eight types of toxic bosses, and leading up to the release of my upcoming book, I Wish I’d Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating and Escaping a Toxic Boss (releasing January 13, 2026, and available now for preorder HERE )—I want to shed light on another destructive leadership style I’ve seen repeatedly in my research and work with thousands of professionals across North America: the Control Freak . If you’ve ever had a boss who hovered o

This blog is part of my ongoing series on toxic bosses, and the eight distinct personas I’veidentified through my latest research on the behaviors and impacts of toxic leaders. Each type is expanded upon in my upcoming book, I Wish I’d Quit Sooner: Practical Strategies for Navigating and Escaping a Toxic Boss , releasing January 13, 2026. In it, I explore the patterns, behaviors, and impacts of these toxic bosses, and most importantly, how to navigate and recover from them. L

What does it mean to be healthy ? It’s about balanced health : being mentally , emotionally , physically , socially , and spiritually well. If any of these components are lacking, our overall feeling of well-being is gradually depleted . If you’re like me, you focus on various components more or less often at certain points, and sometimes you’re just too busy to even consider these aspects. This is exactly why I was grateful to do a health-reset retreat in early July at the

I’ve come to understand that toxic leadership doesn’t have just one face. In my ongoing research and work with thousands of professionals across Canada, I’ve identified and categorized eight distinct toxic boss types , each with their own patterns of dysfunction . While every toxic leader operates differently, and no boss will perfectly fit under one type, the damage they incur in the workplace and among employees is strikingly similar: burnout , self-doubt and erosionofse