The paper emanates from the Chancellor's address that I presented on the 5th of March 2019 at the University of South Africa. Betrayal Trauma Theory (BTT) was used as a lens in understanding toxic leadership in work places. BTT focuses on the ways in which toxic behaviour of leaders may violate or negatively affect trust and well-being of employees. Toxic leadership can bring negative consequences to employees' attitudes toward their leaders and organizations' well-being, and work behaviours. Employees are the less powerful individuals in the leader-employee relationship. They are characterized by a power differential and constrained in what they can do in response to unfavourable treatments they receive from their bosses.