Workplace toxicity is not a fringe issue. Acas found that 44% of working-age adults in Great Britain experienced conflict at work in the last 12 months, in what it describes as the largest study of its kind into conflict at work in Great Britain.
The gap between what employers’ think is happening and what staff actually experience is just as telling. CIPD found that 81% of employers believe they are doing enough to prevent and manage bullying and harassment, yet only 36% of employees who experienced conflict in the past year said it had been fully resolved. Gallup’s 2025 global workplace data adds another layer: 40% of employees experienced stress a lot of the previous day, while 21% experienced anger.
Those numbers help explain why the work of organisational behaviour expert Annick Seys is landing with business audiences. Seys focuses on the patterns leaders miss until they start affecting judgement, team dynamics and performance, especially when strong results begin to mask unhealthy behaviour.
In this exclusive interview with the London Keynote Speakers Agency, Annick Seys explains the warning signs business owners ignore, the blind spots that allow toxic cultures to grow, and why leaders need to look harder at behaviour, not just outcomes.
Q: What are the early warning signs of toxic workplace dynamics that business owners tend to overlook?
Annick Seys: “I love that question, actually. The first thing I want to say, and we’ll definitely be talking about that some more today, is even if they know the signs, they’re often ignoring them.
“I think that’s very important to know. I have so many business leaders who come to me, we talk about toxicity, they see everything I talk about, and they’re still not ready to really see it honestly and to act upon it.
“We’ll talk about why that is, but the signs that they could see are, the first one is the relationship usually starts with a strong sense of togetherness, like you and I, we’re going to change the world. A very strong bond, a very strong understanding, and usually also an amazing start, amazing results.
“That’s what you often see. Sales numbers go up, all kinds of challenges are resolved. That’s the start often. And usually that’s what people want to keep going back to. Like, why can’t this, this was amazing, why can’t we go back to that?
“And so, what they usually want to ignore are signs of a lot of drama happening when they start wanting to have these people held accountable for things that they’ve done. So, they start talking to them. They start questioning things, and somehow truths become elastic.
“So somehow, they manage to refute arguments, they turn things around, and it makes you very confused, like I was there. This is what I came to talk to you about. So how has this become a story that I don’t even recognise properly and somehow, you’re blamed for it?
“And if you are, then it becomes something internal as well. You really take the blame seriously and you’re like, “Yeah, maybe this is my fault. Maybe I shouldn’t have come on so strong. Maybe I’ve done something wrong.”
“And all of that is often entangled in mixed messages, which is, the best example I have is like there’s a strong positive message that is mixed into a negative one. So, the example is you have parents that tell you all the time, “Please come by.
“We really miss you. You’re our special girl and we hardly ever see you.” And when you go and they ask how you’re doing and you’re talking about stuff, then everything you’re talking about seems like the feedback that you’re getting back is you’re not good enough.
“And your brain is really not able to make that a coherent story, or I am your special girl, and I have value or I’m not good enough. But if I’m both, that’s really weird to understand, and to go back to the feeling of togetherness, we tend to go for the I am your special girl.
“So, in leadership situations, it’s often a situation where you’re called a marvellous leader and inadequate at the same time.
“So, these are signs that you can look for.”
Q: What is the biggest leadership blind spot that allows workplace toxicity to take hold?
Annick Seys: “As I said, you could say it’s the togetherness, but it’s actually misplaced hope. I would call it that because of the amazing results. Often people are not looking at behaviour, they’re looking at results.
“And I’ve had this, I was at a certain point wondering about it because I had a lot of business owners, managers coming in and they have really strong values, and they start talking to me about someone being bullied, about themselves suffocating, and they just cannot get back to these values because they’re focused on yes, but they’re invaluable for the company. We need these people. And so, they slowly get destroyed and disempowered, but they keep going for the results.”
Q: How do you challenge leaders to recognise when they are contributing to a toxic culture themselves?
Annick Seys: “When they’re causing it, I usually go back to their values.
“It depends on a bit now what you’re asking me because of course there is toxic personality disorders and when that is happening there’s not a lot I can do. But of course, on the other part of the spectrum, I hold people accountable for are you really living up to your values? Are you walking the talk?
“And it doesn’t mean that you are toxic. It means that you’re cultivating a toxic culture, and often they are doing it by pleasing a lot of people, by also being very insecure, and because they get these results their ego gets boosted and so they leave all of that behind.
“So, I really have quite tough conversations with them. I really confront them with that.”
Q: What do you want audiences to leave with after hearing you speak about toxic behaviour and leadership?
Annick Seys: “I like to improve the world.
“That’s really one of my biggest dreams, to help people shift, and if they get out of the room that they’ve laughed a lot, but that they also have felt a lot of confrontation with maybe I need to shift some of my perspectives. Maybe I need to directly change behaviour if I come out of this room.
“Maybe, for example, when it’s a toxic person, maybe I need to call them on it. Maybe I need to track their behaviour to really see what’s going on, like as if I’m sticking something on them and they can’t really get rid of it, and they start shifting the way that they look at things and behave immediately after.
“If you want the next pass, I can make it read even more like a polished publishable feature while still keeping her wording intact.”
This exclusive interview with Annick Seys was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.
