How to Leverage Executive Presence in a Toxic Culture

Working in a toxic culture is a great way to activate your victim mindset. It tends to bring up all your insecurity around not being valued, loved and accepted. It makes sense that this brings up the fear in all of us. The question is how are you working with the fear to transform it and leverage your executive presence?

As an executive, you can use your emotional intelligence and bring the focus on you and how you can begin to make a positive impact. You can put up with complaining and blaming, which breeds more fear, or you can make a choice to take control of your own feelings, set smart boundaries for yourself and do something about it that feeds and supports you which leads to being an inspiring leader.

This isn’t easy, but two things I have learned from coaching hundreds of people that have been in this situation is that you cannot control what is outside of you, and you have a choice in how you choose to think, to behave and to direct yourself and your experience. The question is, “Are you willing to commit to being accountable to shifting your experience for the good of yourself and your company?”

The first big step is being willing to give up the complaining and buying into the negativity that a toxic culture breeds. In order to do this, you have to turn your vision from what you are seeing outside of you to what you desire. This means turning your thoughts inside of you to your vision of what you desire to experience.

Think about how this situation is an opportunity to strengthen aspects of your executive presence.

What are those aspects and how can you begin to live into strengthening them?

Start with setting your vision for how you desire to be, which is based on the attributes of strengthening your executive presence in the current culture, and then determine what you would have to start practicing to embody the presence you desire. What ideas can you begin to put in motion that will support your organization in making the shift?

Here are three ideas for how to be proactive and leverage your leadership position in a toxic culture.

• Survey Your Team Members – What is it they desire and need to be productive and happy?
• Work with Your Executive Team – Create a company wide stress management program that builds a positive culture and supports the employees and you.
• Be Proactive – Be the example you want to see around you. Keep your thoughts positive, share self-care strategies with your team, and coach them around taking care of themselves in the midst of the current challenges. Acknowledge them for the value they are bringing to the team and company.

It takes courage in setting healthy boundaries so the negativity doesn’t bring you down. Take this moment in your life to shift your perspective and see where it is asking you to grow and put your attention there. Having a self-care program in a toxic culture is a strategy for breeding more productivity and less stress in times of challenge. Being a part of a toxic culture is an invitation to strengthen your executive presence and bring your most powerful positive presence to your team.

No matter your environment, in being accountable to your own happiness, you strengthen your executive presence, impact lives and build healthy productive cultures that thrive.