Have you ever paused to ask yourself how does an organization truly become toxic? Is it born from ambiguous policies? From a poorly defined structure? Or perhaps from relentless external market pressures?
In reality, the genesis is often far more proximate, it begins with the individual self.
It begins with the self that habitually complains about its surroundings, never content with systems, colleagues, leadership decisions, or even the trajectory of its own life. This complaining self elevates grievance into its primary language.
For such individuals, everything and everyone else is at fault, except themselves who assume the illusion of always being right.
This is the anatomy of a toxic individual, one who poisons the organizational climate not through grand sabotage, but through the persistent, repetitive micro-behaviors of negativity.
They walk into the office armed with grievances. Meetings are initiated with sharp but non-constructive criticism. Projects stall under the pretext of “insufficient resources.”
Whenever outcomes deviate from expectations, blame is externalized in every direction except inward.
Let us not be naïve: such patterns are not confined to rank-and-file employees. Entrepreneurs, company owners, and even senior leaders can serve as the primary architects of this cycle that leaders who themselves perpetually complain.
The consequences of such behaviors are never static. They metastasize. Like smoke that slowly fills a room, these patterns evolve into a toxic environment that permeates the organization, eroding morale, stifling motivation, and shifting the cultural rhythm toward chronic pessimism.
Across my own observations of leadership strata from business owners to department heads to executives the pattern is strikingly consistent, complaint as a default mode of engagement.
Some complain about staff, others about their supervisors, others about systems, government policies, customers, or even the market itself.
But let us pause here. Are these not simply processes?
Every morning as we awaken, problems are already present like shadows, inseparable from our existence. Ironically, many still treat problems as intrusions, rather than as intrinsic realities of life. The truth is this: problems are life.
We are placed in our organizational contexts whether as leaders or contributors for a reason to face problems, to navigate challenges, and to grow through them. Absent problems, our roles lose meaning.
Problems within organizations resemble a river’s flow. At times turbulent, at times serene, at times muddied, at times obstructed by rocks.
Without obstacles, the river would lack dynamism, current, and life. Obstacles are precisely what generate energy. So it is with organizations.
Consider corporate life as akin to a Monday morning traffic jam in Kuala Lumpur honking horns, motorcycles weaving through narrow gaps, malfunctioning traffic lights, potholes.
That chaos is the daily “problem.” Yet without traffic, there would be no road. Without congestion, there would be no narrative of travel.
Thus the paradox, problems are not barriers to the journey problems are the journey.
Complaining has become ritualized within organizations. Leaders lament their staff, staff lament their leaders, owners lament the market, markets lament policy, and policies shift under public pressure. It is an endless chain.
Let’s reflect for a moment, if staff were flawless, always punctual, error-free, and never absent, managers would be redundant.
If managers were infallible, providing perfect decisions and flawless resources, employees would cease to think critically. Both would devolve into robots. The organization would become sterile devoid of creativity, tension, and dynamism.
Perfection is a myth. Perfection is not the goal; adaptation is.
In the field of Organizational Behaviour, problems are not regarded as anomalies.
They are evidence of dynamic equilibrium a balance constantly in flux through challenges and responses.
Ronald Heifetz’s theory of Adaptive Leadership underscores this point. Leadership is not about eliminating problems, but about harmonizing imperfection, cultivating adaptability, and building resilience.
Within the framework of Strategic Management, value is generated not through the absence of problems, but through the organization’s ability to transform problems into solutions, a phenomenon often termed value creation through problem-solving.
Without problems, there is no economy, no organization, no employment, and no “us.”
Hence, every morning, recognize that problems are not anomalies to lament but assignments to manage. Their presence signals that we are still alive, still functioning, still needed.
A competent leader is not one who promises “a problem-free organization.”
That is pure fantasy. A competent leader is one who converts complaints into lessons, pressure into innovation, and crises into opportunities.
A life without problems is impossible. Indeed, should we one day encounter life without problems, that would not be life at all it would be the grave.
Thus, before opening our mouths to complain, remember that problems are not adversaries. Problems are existence itself. And we are placed here precisely to confront them, not to escape them.
Even beyond life, in the afterlife, there may be further questions awaiting us.
Thus, so long as we breathe, problems will never cease. The real issue is not the presence of problems, but our compulsive tendency to complain.
We complain upon waking, upon arriving at work, during meetings, and in reports. Day after day, organizations echo with the sound of grievances.
From this emerges the toxic environment, which over time evolves into a toxic organization.
Not because problems are excessive, but because our responses remain immature.
Therefore, let us strive to become leaders and individuals who regard problems as processes, not burdens. End the culture of chronic complaint, for it adds no value to ourselves or to our institutions.
What we aspire to is resilience, organizational harmony, and inner composure in accepting divine decree.
The challenge is to resist the gravitational pull of complaint and instead elevate each issue into a psychological growth point and a moment of strategic reflection.
Complaining is effortless an instinctive reflex. Yet Organizational Psychology demonstrates that once complaint becomes habitual, it mutates into an emotional virus.
This triggers cognitive distortion, where only the negative is visible, and opportunities remain obscured.
From this distortion arise pessimistic leaders, demotivated teams, and organizations that stagnate.
Thus, allow me to share 5 pathways, grounded in both management science and reflective practice, that may help us shift from being complainers to becoming constructive, strategic leaders who treat problems as elements of a lifelong curriculum:
- Reframe Complaints into Constructive Narratives. Cognitive psychology reminds us that interpretation shapes emotion. Use reframing, a tardy employee is not merely a disciplinary issue but an indicator of systemic inefficiency. Financial constraints are not catastrophes but exercises in resource creativity.
- Practice Strategic Questioning. Instead of asking, “Why did this happen?”, ask, “What can we learn from this?” or “How can we improve moving forward?” Such inquiry re-channels negative energy into solution-oriented momentum, anchoring us in action rather than excuses.
- Cultivate a Solution-Oriented Mindset. When confronted with difficulty, resist the narrative of “this is impossible.” Discipline yourself to generate at least three actionable options. This trains the mind to see exits instead of dead ends. In positive psychology, this is known as learned optimism.
- Treat Problems as Strategic Feedback. Every challenge is real-time data. Customer complaints are insights. Budget constraints are reflections of reality. Policy changes are signals for agility. Each is raw material for strategic learning.
- Develop Adaptive Leadership Reflexes. Problems are not intrusions but the rhythm of existence. Adaptive leaders stop perceiving them as threats and start viewing them as instruments of growth.
Ask; What is the wisdom embedded in this trial? Through such reflection, complaints evolve into awareness, and awareness crystallizes into wisdom.
I hope this reflection provides not only value for readers but also a shared reminder for our teams, our organizations, and our wider ecosystems.
My intention is simple, that we remind, strengthen, and elevate one another. In leadership, there is no perfection only the daily discipline of incremental improvement.
All good is from Allah, and all weakness is from me.
