I had first hand experience of working in a toxic work place, ironically a place that claimed to be a "social" impact company.

None of the people I worked with were about getting rich faster or making millions. They had a fairly reasonable trajectory and were moderately successful. The things that I noticed were:

Fear of success outside of their roles. These folks had no confidence about their ability to succeed outside of their role and hence they would focus on survival mechanisms, which was to show themselves as good over the expense of others. This included gossip, backbiting and any deceptive process where information is either fabricated or selectively leaked.

Reluctance to Adapt. They were reluctant to adapt or learn new things. My way or high way seemed to be the norm.

Inventing Cultural and other barriers. Dividing themselves with others, finding all kinds of barriers to see themselves as a victim and using any excuse outside of their work capabilities to justify their lack of leadership or action.

Bad leadership. The leaders above: CTO and CEO encouraged petty politics and gossip. The CTO would actively leak information and sensitive screenshots and would try to create divisions among his own team so that they can play the peace-maker or show them as petty.

Overall, my experience taught me that how your top level leadership handles conflicts and creates clarity has a direct impact on the culture of the company.