Trust Breakers: 8 Leadership Mistakes That Destroy Team Confidence

The traditional leadership playbook—built on hierarchical control and one-size-fits-all management—is rapidly becoming obsolete. Today’s leaders navigate a complex landscape of remote teams, multigenerational workforces, and rapidly changing technological ecosystems where trust is the critical currency of effective leadership.

Recent studies reveal a stark reality: nearly 65% of employees report losing trust in their leaders during the past five years, with remote and hybrid work environments amplifying communication challenges. Yet, the fundamental human need for genuine connection and mutual respect remains unchanged.

Just as my colleague Jack Zenger and I discovered in our extensive research on trust, the core behaviors that erode or build organizational confidence are timeless—even as the workplace continues to evolve.

This exploration into the eight critical trust destroyers offers leaders a vital roadmap for navigating these challenging dynamics. Whether you’re leading a startup, managing a global team, or steering a traditional organization through digital transformation, understanding how trust is built—and broken—has never been more crucial.

What Went Wrong — 8 Behaviors That Erode Trust

1. You Were Inconsiderate: The Empathy Deficit

Inconsideration in leadership is a silent trust killer that goes far beyond simple rudeness. It’s about failing to recognize the human behind the role—the complex individual bringing their full self to work each day. In our research, we found that inconsideration often stems from two root causes: pure self-centeredness or a profound lack of awareness about others’ experiences.

Modern leadership demands emotional intelligence that transcends traditional management approaches. It’s about understanding that every interaction either builds or erodes trust. Inconsideration might look like dismissing a team member’s concerns, overlooking the contributions of quieter team members, or failing to recognize the diverse perspectives within your organization.

Practical Fix: Develop a practice of intentional listening. Create space for team members to share their perspectives, actively seek out voices that are typically unheard, and demonstrate that you value input from all levels of the organization.

2. You Created or Allowed Conflict: The Unmanaged Tension Trap

Conflict itself is not the enemy—unresolved conflict is the true trust destroyer. Most leaders mistakenly believe that avoiding conflict will maintain harmony when in reality, unaddressed tensions create a toxic undercurrent that undermines team performance and organizational health.

Effective leadership requires viewing conflict as an opportunity for growth rather than a problem to be suppressed. The most trusted leaders don’t eliminate conflict; they create environments where conflict can be addressed constructively. This means developing skills to facilitate difficult conversations, create psychological safety, and transform potential friction into collaborative problem-solving.

Practical Fix: Establish regular, structured opportunities for open dialogue. Implement team communication protocols that encourage direct, respectful communication and provide frameworks for resolving interpersonal challenges.

3. You Are Uncooperative: The Collaboration Blindspot

Cooperation is no longer optional—it’s the fundamental currency of organizational success. In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, the ability to work across boundaries, departments, and disciplines has become critical. Our research consistently shows that collaborative teams outperform individual contributors by significant margins.

Uncooperative behavior manifests in subtle ways: refusing to share resources, working in silos, resisting cross-functional initiatives, or maintaining a strictly independent approach. These behaviors directly undermine organizational effectiveness and erode trust across teams.

Practical Fix: Create structural incentives for collaboration. Design performance metrics and reward systems that explicitly value team achievements over individual accomplishments.

4. You Give Lousy Feedback: The Communication Breakdown

Feedback is the lifeblood of organizational growth, yet it remains one of the most avoided leadership responsibilities. Our data reveals a startling statistic: 44% of leaders find giving corrective feedback stressful, leading to a dangerous cycle of avoidance and miscommunication.

Poor feedback manifests in two primary ways: complete silence or exclusively negative criticism. Neither approach helps team members understand their performance or develop their potential. The most trusted leaders view feedback as a collaborative process of mutual growth, not a punitive exercise.

Practical Fix: Adopt a balanced feedback approach. Implement regular, structured feedback sessions that focus on both strengths and areas for development. Train leaders in providing specific, actionable, and constructive feedback.

5. You Are a Poor Role Model: The Credibility Gap

Leadership is fundamentally about consistency between words and actions. When leaders say one thing and do another, they create a credibility gap that rapidly erodes trust. Role modeling isn’t about perfection—it’s about demonstrating integrity, accountability, and a commitment to personal growth.

Poor role models expose themselves through hypocrisy: setting standards they don’t follow, exempting themselves from rules they impose on others, or failing to take responsibility for their own mistakes.

Practical Fix: Commit to radical transparency. Be the first to acknowledge your mistakes, demonstrate the behaviors you expect from others, and show a genuine commitment to personal and professional development.

6. You Are Uninspiring: The Motivation Vacuum

Inspiration is no longer a soft skill—it’s a critical leadership competency. Today’s workforce seeks meaning beyond mere transactional work. Being uninspiring doesn’t just mean lacking energy; it means failing to connect daily tasks to a broader purpose and potential impact.

Leaders can be uninspiring in two destructive ways: either through complete emotional flatness or through aggressive, demotivating pushiness. The key is finding an authentic middle ground that generates genuine enthusiasm and commitment.

Practical Fix: Regularly articulate the broader impact of your team’s work. Help team members understand how their individual contributions connect to larger organizational and societal goals.

7. You Have Poor Judgment: The Decision-Making Pitfall

Poor judgment isn’t about making occasional mistakes—it’s about consistently failing to consider consequences, hide errors, or learn from missteps. In our increasingly complex business environment, judgment is about more than individual decisions—it’s about demonstrating a thoughtful, strategic approach to problem-solving.

Leaders with poor judgment tend to make reactive decisions, blame others for failures, or repeatedly make the same mistakes without reflection.

Practical Fix: Develop robust decision-making frameworks. Implement processes that encourage strategic thinking, seek diverse perspectives, and create opportunities for honest post-mortem analysis.

8. You Have No Interest in Changing: The Stagnation Trap

The most dangerous leadership posture is one of complete complacency. Leaders who resist feedback, justify their actions, and show no desire for personal improvement create organizational ceilings that limit both individual and collective potential.

The most effective leaders cultivate a mindset of continuous learning. They actively seek feedback, demonstrate vulnerability, and show a genuine commitment to personal and professional growth.

Practical Fix: Create a personal development plan that includes regular external feedback, mentorship, and structured opportunities for learning and growth.

Is It Possible to Regain Trust?

The journey of rebuilding trust is not a linear path, but a deliberate, nuanced process of personal and professional transformation. Our research of 564 leaders who were initially assessed as having critical trust deficiencies revealed a powerful insight: 47% were able to significantly improve their trust ratings within 18-24 months.

This isn’t just about damage control—it’s about fundamental leadership redesign.

The most significant improvements came from two critical areas:

1. Relationship Transformation Trust is fundamentally human. In our hyperconnected yet often emotionally distant workplace, leaders who invest in genuine relationship-building stand out. This means moving beyond transactional interactions to create meaningful connections. It involves active listening, demonstrating empathy, and showing authentic care for team members as individuals, not just resources.
2. Feedback and Personal Development. The most trusted leaders are not those who are perfect, but those who are committed to continuous improvement. They create a culture of mutual growth by:

• Actively seeking feedback from all levels of the organization
• Demonstrating vulnerability in acknowledging their own limitations
• Showing tangible evidence of personal and professional development

The Urgent Leadership Imperative

As organizations become more complex, distributed, and dependent on collaborative innovation, trust is the invisible infrastructure that enables extraordinary performance. Your path forward is clear: Identify your trust destroyers, commit to intentional change, and approach leadership as a continuous journey of personal growth and genuine human connection.

Remember, trust is not given—it’s earned daily through consistent, authentic actions.

–Joe Folkman