Tarnished: Toxic Leadership in the U.S. Military

by George E. Reed

Bad or toxic leadership, abusive supervision, and petty tyranny in organizations are perennial issues. But to date, there has been little effort to examine the scope and nature of bad leadership in the military. Tarnished rectifies that lack of attention by defining the problems and suggesting possible solutions appropriate to the military’s unique structure and situation.

 

Leadership is central to the identity of the U.S. military. Service academies and precommissioning processes have traditionally stressed the development of conscientious leaders of character. The services regularly publish doctrinal works and professional journal articles focusing on various aspects of leadership. Unsurprisingly, in most of those publications leadership is presented as a universally positive notion, a solution to problems, and something to be developed through an extensive and costly system of professional military education.

 

Leadership expert George E. Reed, however, focuses on individual experiences of toxic leadership at the organizational level, arguing that because toxic leadership has such a detrimental impact on the military organizational culture, additional remediation measures are needed. Reed also demonstrates how system dynamics and military culture themselves contribute to the problem. Most significant, the book provides cogent advice and insights to those suffering from toxic leaders, educators developing tomorrow’s military leaders, and military administrators working to repair the current system.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Andrew Brod · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 40 page essay of toxic leadership stretched into 175 pages, including poorly explained and/or integrated vignettes. Some good tips on dealing with toxic people but it felt like I was reading a long Readers Digest article.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good review of toxic leadership and its impact

Author provided a thorough background to the topic of toxic leadership among military hierarchies. Very good book. Only thing missing was a discussion on weak willed leaders that are also in a sense toxic in that they cannot advocate for subordinates or don't care enough to do a proper job.

[Tyler Kendell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for people that want to become leaders, are dealing with leaders they but heads with, or even co-workers they dealing with. I am more partial to having bulleted lists to help identify items but i feel that the added explanations in each section drive home the ways to identify and make strides towards solving toxic leadership

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok so we know that there is toxic military leaders. This is not new or ground breaking knowledge and I felt like the first half was defining what a bad leader is and the second half was how to manage these mercurial people with little insight into what the U.S. military is doing to manage this crisis either though policy changes, direct corrections or training adjustments.

[Matt Bloesch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. It really helped me understand some of the toxic leaders I’ve worked for, and gave me some insights on how to shape my own leadership style to avoid toxic traits. Anyone in the law enforcement field should read this.

[Dennis Rieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad review of toxic leadership through a a military lens. Probably more book here than needed based on the amount of information in it but does execute a good review of the topic

[Sue Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a lot of truth to this book - some great insights on what makes people toxic leaders (and even colleagues or subordinates) and how to deal with them. Overall slant emphasizes that a bit of narcissism is really crippling b/c these leaders just lack the insight into their own behavior and fail to see the negative impact and make adjustments. I was sort of bummed out that there was not more to figuring out ways to prevent people from BECOMING toxic. . . I suppose there are toxic leaders everywhere, but very good point made by the author that the rank/status structure of the military can certainly exacerbate the problem, as well as the inability of subordinate soldiers to just up and quit.