Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates ... and Other Difficult People: Using Emotional Intelligence to Survive and Prosper (Financial Times Prentice Hall Books)

Some people are toxic: narcissistic, aggressive, inflexible, unethical, ready to scapegoat, capable of transforming any workplace into an unending nightmare. How do you cope with such individuals, while protecting both your career AND your sanity? Simplistic, cookie-cutter solutions don't work. In Coping with Toxic Managers, world-renowned psychiatrist and organizational consultant Roy Lubit shows you techniques that will. Drawing on his extensive experience as both a mental health professional and an organizational consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Lubit offers concrete, proven advice for subordinates, colleagues and superiors alike. You learn what's really driving your toxic manager or subordinate... how to cope with the emotional stress of dealing with them... and how to create a strategy that reflects their individual personality, while drawing on today's powerful new insights into emotional intelligence. The technicques Lubit teaches apply to personal relationships with toxic individuals as well.

Non-profits and cultural organizations face major management challenges today. For example, while the number of museums has increased, there has been a great decrease in total funding. To stay competitive, these organizations have had to make fundamental changes in their operations and rely on a new breed of managers and professionals. This has been complicated by strong internal resistance to change. As a result, many cultural organizations find themselves unable to harness the talents of their staff and, instead, find productivity decreasing and morale dropping rapidly. High turnover, unhappiness and anger make for unmanageable environments.

Lubit's book contains excellent strategic thinking for dealing with the rapidly changing settings. Incorporating insights from experience in psychiatry, business management, and organizational leadership, Lubit provides a a comprehensive, hands-on guide for dealing with your superiors, subordinates and peers. This book is very complete. It describes the most troublesome types of negative and "toxic" personalities, explores the underlying reasons for the behaviors, and moves the reader from theory, to examples, to exercise sections called "Your Turn". The book is well organized, snappily written, and easy to use. It is complete with detailed "how to" sections, charts, and examples with both good and bad endings. This book will facilitate not just survival, but productivity and well-being in the workplace -- and elsewhere. I recommend it highly.
April 13, 2004

As I read the well-defined descriptions of Toxic Managers, I couldn't help but recall the many faces of those difficult people that have crossed my own work path over the past 24 years, and how I might have dealt with them differently under Roy Lubit's construct. Surely you'll experience similar learning and benefit, as you hear what the author has to say about how to deal with the difficult people that you encounter in your work life.

This book does a tremendous service by reminding us that work IS personal after all; that organizations are organic systems made up of human beings with personalities, traits, and problems that we cannot simply turn off or leave at home, like robots. These toxic behaviors and managers, as defined by the author, represent the hard HARD work that organizations must do to fix the illusive and, often substantially, costly problems.

I am delighted to add a practical approach and book to my toolbox to help executives and managers take compassionate, actionable steps toward solving issues that typically impede business performance and progress. This book, I project, will help heal the hearts and performance of many organizations and professionals who seek a cure for whatever ails them.
December 14, 2003