All the managers I admired in corporate America had a lot in common. They were the Type A, do it yourself overachievers. The VP by 25, 40 under 40 award winners you see on stage and featured in magazines. Positive, driven, and creative… until anything went wrong. That’s when all hell broke loose. They had no idea how to navigate uncertainty.

I call them “toxic” with the deepest empathy now that I’ve also been a manager.  They were under a lot of social and corporate pressure - whether it was being the only woman in a male-dominated field or trying to hit a profit margin in one year knowing that a miss would mean people were losing their jobs. Very few people can be kind, compassionate, or caring under that kind of immense pressure to succeed. Were some of them just jerks? Also, yes. Go to therapy. But their behavior? Toxic is really the only way I can describe someone screaming profanities at their team. 

As much as the movies and some leadership frameworks want you to believe leaders rise under pressure, there’s a reason they make movies about the people that do. They’re rare. Even with all the training in life before you enter corporate America like growing up with military parents or playing on sports teams (me), no one has all the leadership skills they need. Especially under the pressure of uncertainty. 

The Root Cause of Toxic Leadership

No matter how toxic someone can be, no one is making their best decisions, having the most calm reactions, or developing the ideal plan while the world swirls in uncertainty around them. Especially as uncertainty has only multiplied over the last 5 years with the exception of that brief period of worker leverage in 2021 and 2022. Job insecurity has climbed significantly, with 2025 marking the peak in layoffs and economic anxiety - even surpassing the volatility of 2020. 2025 surveys from the American Psychological Association show that 81% of workers fear job loss and 76% anticipate further layoffs. 

The default reaction to this constant feeling of insecurity? You guessed it. Toxicity. Not leadership skills. 

My hypothesis for why? The first half of career growth is driven by investments in performance, not leadership. We teach people skills that make them productive in the first 5 years of their careers. Things like how to use the CRM and email optimization. Then we promote the most productive people, not the best leaders, to lead people. 

97% of people report working in a toxic environment. I think it’s clear that we’ve copied and pasted the wrong growth path into management. The cost? You have probably experienced it yourself. People quit. People are unhappy. No one does their best work because they’re pissed off at the boss and panicked. We don’t need data to prove it. We live it. Toxicity is everywhere in corporate America and it’s about time we change something. Toxic managers leave scars on all of us. 

Training Managers for Uncertainty

When so many people have experienced toxic managers and the future is changing faster than any business can pivot, we can’t continue to expect people to be natural leaders. You have to teach them the leadership skills we want to see every day - especially how to navigate uncertainty with confidence. Call it resilience, confidence, no assholes training. I don’t care. But give your team tools for managing their panic in the unknown including tips for what to do when things go wrong, resources for support, and situational training. 

It’s not rocket science, it’s practice. These managers won’t deploy any best practices when it matters if they can’t navigate uncertainty. They’ll be left with the tools they can access in the panic which are usually yelling, shutting down, or giving poor feedback. 

The reality is that there’s more uncertainty ahead. You can’t guarantee that nothing bad will happen. Training now means your leaders have the tools to act from a place of purpose instead of panic. That’s the biggest benefit I see from this kind of coaching and training: people who can handle the inevitable swings ahead and still perform at the highest level. Even more significant is that these folks know how to be kind and lead people instead of defaulting to their bad behaviors when hard decisions have to be made. 

I’m 100000% biased in this recommendation because I actually wrote the book on navigating uncertainty with confidence in leadership. It’s called The Bounce Back Factor. Buy a copy plus book time with me to talk event presentations, team training, or some other idea here so we can instill this life lesson into your group as they navigate more uncertainty driven by the "triple threat" of persistent inflation, a cooling labor market, and the rapid integration of generative AI.

The Bounce Back Factor

The Bounce Back Factor is a series of tools for taking on the everyday uncertainty that comes at work and in our lives. These simple strategies and memorable stories will encourage you (and your team) to embed compassion, creativity, and space for innovation into your approach to leading each other.

How Can You Bring The Bounce Back Factor To Your Team Or Group?

• Keynote Speaking: A presentation so good you'll wish the keynote was longer.
• 1-1 Leadership Coaching + Cohorts For Teams: Bouncing back isn't a one and done mission. Ongoing practice helps teams grow as they go.
• Lunch-and-Learn Workshops: Company wide innovation starts with collaborative learning (and a dash of inspiration.)
• Have An Idea? If you have an, "I wonder if..." idea or question, book a meeting. We're all ears.