Apr 30, 2026
Toxic bosses wreck their teams.
You'll see it in how they protect their territory. The territory gets defended in small ways (a dismissal here, a reframe there) until people stop bringing things in.
Their behaviour is highly contagious. People stop speaking up and stop challenging ideas. They do just enough to stay safe, having learned that curiosity gets punished.
This is how teams lose their edge.
Control addiction is the thing underneath most of this. And you can't fix someone who has it, not from below them in an org chart, not really. What you can do is notice it early and make a decision about proximity.
Progress just slows down. And ceilings don't move, even if you've noticed them.
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I'm a father of 3 from Sydney, a product and technology leader. I write about leadership, product management, technology and the messy reality of making work work.
I'm currently building and experimenting with a mildly alarming number of things. I also work as a fractional product leader, stepping in where the founder or CEO is still carrying product decisions on their own, and offer 1:1 product leadership coaching for senior PMs and emerging product leaders. I founded SoundingBoard, practical peer exchange for product people. Connect via LinkedIn, or follow me on X.
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