Dr. Mitchell (Mitch) Kusy is a 2005 Fulbright Scholar in Organization Development (Ukraine) and professor in the Graduate School of Leadership & Change, Antioch University. A Registered Organization Development Consultant, Mitch has consulted and been a keynote speaker with hundreds of organizations nationally and internationally—helping create work cultures of respectful engagement impacting individual, team, and bottom-line performance.
For the past 25 years, he has consulted in large-scale systems change with a focus on improving organizational culture and long-term return on investment. He previously headed leadership and organization development at American Express Financial Advisors and HealthPartners. Previous to his most recent book, Why I Don't Work Here Anymore: A Leader’s Guide to Offset the Financial and Emotional Costs of Toxic Employees (2017), Mitch co-authored five business books, including The Little Book of Leadership Development(2011), Toxic Workplace (2009), Manager’s Desktop Consultant (2007), Breaking the Code of Silence (2005), and Fast Forward Leadership (1999). His books have been translated into Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, Polish, and Spanish.
In 1998, he received the Minnesota Organization Development Practitioner of the Year Award. He resides in Minneapolis and Palm Springs, and may be contacted at mitchellkusy@gmail.com or via his website at www.mitchellkusy.com. He can be followed on LinkedIn and Facebook Business.
Toxic Behaviors Diminish Well-Being and Performance:
How to Design Cultures of Civility that Mean Business.
We often refer to them as narcissists, bullies, and clever chameleons. 
They knock down but kiss up through shaming, manipulating, and belittling behaviors. In this keynote address, Mitch presents cutting-edge research on how these toxic personalities gain a foothold in organizations, as well as what to do about it from three lenses—the individual, the team, and the organization.
In a national research study with over 400 individuals, Mitch and colleague Elizabeth Holloway discovered that toxic personalities are more prevalent than many imagine with a whopping 94% of us having dealt with them in the past five years; 92% rating the severity of their behavior from 7 to 10 on a 10-point scale. We feel the angst they cause to individuals and teams: 87% stating the team climate worsened because of toxic personalities with 51% reporting they were likely to quit as a result. In Mitch’s latest book, Why I Don’t Work Here Anymore: A Leader’s Guide to Offset the Financial and Emotional Costs of Toxic Employees, he presents a heavily researched formula demonstrating how to determine the financial impact of toxic personalities in your organization—typically 4% to 6% of total compensation costs! Sadly, only 6% of victims ever report their uncivil actions to anyone with the authority to do something about it!
Use of intuition in dealing with these Dr. Jekylls and Mr. Hydes often fails. Science—not “winging it”—is on our side and we, as interdisciplinary leaders, need to tap into the scientific data available. During this keynote address, he will present several inventories from his book to assess toxic personalities, toxic protectors, and toxic buffers. He will provide many templates for better detecting toxic people at the recruiting state, more effective identification of toxic bosses earlier, and identifying values-based performance management.
Mitch further addresses the #1 question he has received from thousands of individuals worldwide: How to handle a toxic boss? And the #2 question: How to handle toxic individuals who are organizational “stars”? Stay tuned for what to do and how to help leaders understand and prevent the mass exodus of good folks in their wake.
Mitch concludes this keynote presentation with top talent development strategies that can be easily put into daily practice—with new norms of everyday civility to promote human capital. It takes a village and Mitch shows how to use a systems approach to create cultures of respectful engagement that mean business—successful business! Creating healthy organizations is about designing cultures where personal well-being, team performance, and sustained productivity thrive. And we are key players in making this happen!
