Over the past two decades research has studied the “dark side of leadership” under the research stream of destructive leadership, variously described as abusive, aversive, derailing, toxic, and tyrannical leadership. While there has been significant research into the consequences of destructive leadership, there has been limited investigation of its antecedents. It has been proposed by a number of researchers, investigating a leader trait approach to leadership, that “dark side” traits (socially undesirable traits that can have negative implications for work success and the well-being of employees) exhibit a curvilinear relationship with key outcomes (e.g., leader and follower performance, follower engagement, and follower well-being): that is, there exist negative consequences for extremely low or high “bright side” personality traits (behavioural traits leaders seem to exhibit when they are performing at their best) and positive consequences for moderate dark side personality traits. Extreme levels of some bright side (e.g., independence, assertiveness, charisma) and dark side (e.g., ego-centred, intimidating, manipulative) traits have been identified as antecedents to exhibiting destructive leadership behaviours. Sustained demonstration of destructive leadership behaviours are associated with harmful outcomes that lead to serious problems for employees in the workplace. Yet there is scarce research into the coping strategies followers employ to cope with destructive leadership.