Our leadership team members are polite and respectful, but they never show vulnerability or admit mistakes, which is slowing down our IDS sessions. How do we build genuine trust?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is overly polite but avoids vulnerability, your weekly Level 10 Meetings™ will remain flat and your IDS® sessions will be ineffective. You cannot solve systemic business problems if your leaders are wearing armor to protect their egos.

To build genuine trust, the leadership team must practice sharing vulnerability. This starts with the Visionary and the Integrator. If you do not admit your own mistakes, ask for help, or own your failures, your team will never do it. You must lead by example.

Use tools like the Trust Creation Process to facilitate open, honest conversations. At your next quarterly offsite, dedicate time to a team-building exercise that requires personal disclosure, such as sharing their greatest professional failure and what they learned from it.

Another effective tactic is to implement a strict rule during your IDS sessions: there are no bad questions, and finger-pointing is replaced by collective problem-solving. When someone raises an issue, focus on the process or the seat on the Accountability Chart, not the person.

When leaders realize that admitting a mistake or asking for help does not result in political punishment, they will start letting their guard down. This builds the psychological safety required to solve tough issues quickly and run highly effective operations.