Crisis Junky: When Leaders Thrive on Chaos
- Morgan Hunter
- Mar 18
- 5 min read
In this episode of Monster in My Closet, Anil and Morgan explore the phenomenon of "crisis junkies"—leaders who manufacture or exploit chaos to appear indispensable. They discuss the psychological motivations behind this behavior, its damaging effects on company culture, and strategies to mitigate its impact. Drawing on personal experiences and research, they illustrate how these behaviors erode trust, increase turnover, and perpetuate a toxic workplace environment. The episode concludes with actionable advice for employees and organizations on addressing crisis-prone leadership patterns. These show notes include the following:
"If you’re a leader and think you’re fooling people with your rambunctious behavior, you’re not. Everyone can see you."
Key Takeaways
Identify a Crisis-Prone Leader: Look for signs like exaggerating problems, creating unnecessary drama, or frequently claiming they’re the only ones who can solve issues.
Understand the Motivations: Recognize that crisis-prone leaders may act out of imposter syndrome, insecurity, or a desire for attention and accolades.
Mitigate the Impact: As an employee, assess the urgency of "emergencies" yourself and avoid unnecessary stress. Push for discussions on root causes and long-term solutions.
Create Structures to Reduce Chaos: Organizations should formalize crisis management teams and cultivate a culture of proactive planning rather than reactive scrambling.
Ask Preventative Questions: Consistently inquire, "How can we prevent this from happening again?" immediately after a crisis to identify root causes.
Set Personal Boundaries: Resist the pressure to treat every situation as urgent; prioritize your well-being and manage your energy effectively.
"Organizations thrive when they’re boring. Constant chaos signals something inherently wrong."
Preventing Crisis-Driven Leadership Before It Happens
Define Organizational Values Clearly: Ensure company values prioritize stability, transparency, and long-term planning. Integrate these values into leadership training and performance metrics.
Hire for Emotional Intelligence (EQ): During recruitment, evaluate leadership candidates for emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and the ability to handle stress without creating unnecessary drama. Use behavioral interview questions to identify these traits.
Train Leaders on Strategic Problem-Solving: Offer proactive leadership development programs that teach structured problem-solving, crisis prevention, and strategic thinking. Emphasize calm decision-making and planning over reactive behaviors.
Set Boundaries for Leadership Behavior: Create policies and expectations around what constitutes acceptable leadership practices. Encourage data-driven decision-making and discourage "hero" narratives that glorify crisis-solving as a leadership trait.
Foster a Culture of Collaboration: Encourage teamwork over individual heroics. Leaders who thrive on chaos often isolate decision-making. Promoting collaborative problem-solving reduces the likelihood of a single person driving unnecessary crises.
Establish Early Warning Systems: Develop mechanisms like regular employee pulse surveys, team feedback sessions, and performance reviews to catch destabilizing behaviors early. Train HR to identify and flag patterns of crisis-manufacturing.
Encourage Long-Term Thinking: Tie leadership success metrics to long-term outcomes like retention, employee morale, and sustainable growth. Reward leaders for consistent, effective performance rather than reactive or last-minute success.
Promote Accountability Structures: Require leaders to report regularly on key metrics like team morale, project stability, and resource use. Review reports for signs of unnecessary escalations or overemphasis on crises.
Provide Robust Support Systems: Offer leaders access to resources like mentors, executive coaches, or peer groups to manage stress and avoid feeling compelled to create drama to assert control.
Document and Standardize Processes: Create clear, documented processes for handling challenges and crises. A defined protocol reduces ambiguity and limits opportunities for individuals to invent emergencies.
Discourage "Urgency Culture": Avoid rewarding "urgent" actions or behaviors disproportionately. Instead, recognize leaders who prioritize stability, build contingency plans, and resolve issues before they escalate.
Create a Crisis-Prevention Team: Assemble a cross-functional team responsible for identifying potential issues before they develop into crises. This team can assess risks and recommend proactive measures to leaders.
Communicate Organizational Goals Clearly: Ensure leadership teams have a shared understanding of the company’s goals and how stability is critical to achieving them. Misalignment can lead to opportunistic crisis creation.
Monitor for Early Signs: Teach teams to recognize and address early signs of crisis-driven leadership, such as unnecessary escalation of minor issues or disproportionate focus on being the “hero.”
"Manufacturing problems just to fix them is the exact definition of a firefighter arsonist."
Research and Statistics
Journal of Leadership Studies: 68% of employees report decreased trust in leadership when crises are perceived as manufactured.
Harvard Business Review (2007): Discussed the concept of “Munchausen in the Workplace,” where leaders create problems to appear indispensable.
Companies with established crisis management teams report fewer occurrences of chaos-inducing leadership behaviors.
VUCA Framework: Originally developed for modern warfare, this framework—Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity—is useful for organizations managing constant change.
A study in the Journal of Leadership Studies found that 68% of employees reported decreased trust in leadership when crises were perceived as manufactured.
Research published in Harvard Business Review indicates that companies led by crisis-prone leaders experience a 15% higher turnover rate.
The American Psychological Association notes that transparent communication during crises significantly boosts employee morale and trust. American Psychological Association
A Frontiers in Psychology article discusses how crises can serve as catalysts for creative action, emphasizing the importance of leadership in navigating such times. Frontiers
The Journal of Management Studies highlights that organizations with robust crisis management plans are 25% more resilient to leadership-induced turmoil.
Suggested Reading
The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness by Lolly Daskal – Explores how leaders sabotage their success by falling into unproductive patterns and how to overcome these pitfalls.
The Drama-Free Workplace: How You Can Prevent Unconscious Bias, Sexual Harassment, Ethics Lapses, and Inspire a Healthy Culture by Patti Perez – Focuses on preventing and addressing destructive workplace behaviors, including manufactured crises.
Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It) by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic – Examines how overconfidence and dysfunction often lead to leadership roles, and how organizations can avoid promoting toxic behaviors.
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown – Offers practical tools for building courageous, authentic leadership while addressing the fear and insecurity that can lead to crisis-seeking behavior.
Toxic Workplace!: Managing Toxic Personalities and Their Systems of Power by Mitchell Kusy and Elizabeth Holloway – Investigates the long-term effects of toxic leaders and offers actionable strategies to mitigate their impact.
Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time by Jeffrey Pfeffer – Takes a hard look at myths in leadership, including how crises and drama are sometimes used as tools of manipulation.
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare – A deep dive into the behaviors of manipulative and destructive individuals in leadership roles.
Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein – Focuses on how relational leadership can prevent the dysfunction that leads to constant workplace crises.
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy C. Edmondson – Explores how creating a psychologically safe workplace reduces dysfunction and promotes trust.
Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni – A practical guide for identifying and addressing dysfunction in leadership and teams, which often includes crisis-seeking behaviors.
Wrap-up
Understanding and addressing the behaviors of crisis-prone leaders is essential for fostering a healthy, productive workplace. By identifying these patterns and implementing strategies to mitigate their impact, both employees and organizations can create environments where trust and stability thrive. Remember, true leadership isn’t about creating fires to put out—it’s about preventing them in the first place.
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