Who Grew the Bad Apple?

Originally published August 19, 2025 · Edited February 18, 2026

The data is clear: a single toxic presence can cut team performance by 30-40% (Felps’ research). Leaders don’t miss that kind of performance drift. It can be seen and felt across the organization.

But here’s what the research also reveals: the environment matters more than the individual. The instinct to identify and remove a “bad apple” often misses the deeper question.

What conditions created the behavior in the first place?

The Personal Lens

Stress doesn’t stay where it starts. It spills. It spreads.

• Emotional contagion: moods spread unconsciously in teams, families, even online (PNAS Study).
• Stress contagion: simply witnessing someone under pressure can spike your cortisol and heart rate (TIME Report).
• Spillover-crossover: stress at home shows up at work, and work strain follows you home (PMC Study).

None of this requires authority or intent. It just requires carrying frustration into a space that doesn’t deserve it. Many of us don’t realize we’re doing it until someone names it.

A question worth asking: How am I showing up right now, and is it what this moment needs?

The Leadership Lens

For leaders, the dynamic multiplies. The signals we send as leaders create conditions that either prevent or produce the very behaviors we’re trying to eliminate.

• One toxic voice can sink a team by 30-40%.
• But it isn’t just individuals. Culture is the larger force. A toxic workplace is 10x more predictive of attrition than pay (MIT Sloan Review).
• Environments that silence dissent or reward blind compliance tend to manufacture disengagement, then blame the people they broke.
• Publicly labeling someone “the problem” drags the whole team down (SAGE Journals).

The old reflex of spot, label, remove isn’t leadership. It’s avoidance. And it tends to make the problem worse.

A better question: Before deciding someone is the problem, ask: did the environment grow it?

Seeing Clearly Before Acting

This is where honest self-assessment begins, the diagnostic work of Face the Truth.

• Leaders who sustain healthy cultures tend to examine their own signals before diagnosing others.
• Individuals who maintain strong professional relationships tend to notice when their stress is spilling into spaces that deserve better.
• The shift is from blame to awareness, from symptoms to root causes.

What Leaders Who Sustain Healthy Cultures Tend to Do

As individuals:

1. Pause before walking into the next room. Reset before carrying stress forward.
2. Ask: Am I helping this moment, or is something else leaking through?
3. Recognize that impact matters more than intent.

As leaders:

1. Diagnose systems before blaming people.
2. Protect dissent and treat resistance as data, not defiance.
3. Reinforce trust by fixing processes, not scapegoating staff.

A practice to try: End your next meeting with this question: What signals am I sending, and what might they create?

The Bottom Line

Organizations don’t just have bad apples. They have conditions that grow them, or prevent them. The research is consistent: the environment predicts the behavior far more reliably than any individual trait.

The question that matters isn’t who the bad apple is. It’s what the orchard looks like. And whether we’re willing to see it clearly enough to change it.

Continue Your Exploration

Framework Context:

The self-awareness described here is the foundation of Face the Truth, the diagnostic work of seeing clearly before acting. The shift from blame to systems thinking connects to Make It Real, building environments that prevent problems rather than chasing symptoms. And sustaining that awareness over time is what Reinforce the Change addresses.

Research Foundation:

• The Trust Paradox – Why the instinct to label and remove often backfires
• The Expectation Gap – Understanding the gap between what leaders intend and what employees experience

Where These Conversations Happen

The question “What signals am I sending?” is the kind of honest self-assessment that happens in our confidential Think Tanks. City managers and county administrators share real challenges, examine their own leadership signals, and support one another without judgment. This topic has been one of the most recurring themes across five years of sessions.