Our leadership team is protective of their departments and avoids RPRS calls. How do we build trust to speak openly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is protective of their departments and reluctant to challenge one another, you're experiencing an artificial harmony problem. This silences critical discussions and prevents optimal [Right Person, Right Seat](/qa/competing-for-same-seat-rprs) decisions.

Building Vulnerability-Based Trust

To overcome this barrier, you need to cultivate vulnerability-based trust. Trust requires individuals to take personal risks and prioritize the collective good over self-interest. As the owner, you must model this behavior.

• Lead by example: At your next quarterly meeting, begin by admitting your own mistakes or sharing areas where you lack capacity. This grants your team permission to be vulnerable. You may also find insights in [how to assess your own GWC](/qa/founder-bottleneck-gwc-assessment) for a given role.
• Emphasize the Greater Good: Remind the team of the Greater Good concept within EOS. Every leader must first wear their "leadership team hat," meaning their primary loyalty is to the health of the entire company, not solely to their individual department. This shift in mindset is crucial for [aligning the leadership team to an enterprise-first perspective](/qa/shifting-leadership-mindset-to-enterprise-first).

Fostering Open Communication

During your [IDS sessions](/qa/improving-departmental-level-10-meetings-ids), directly address any polite silence.

• Push for root causes: If a metric is off or a Rock is missed, encourage the team to discuss the underlying root cause, even if it feels uncomfortable. This proactive approach helps prevent [defensiveness around red scorecard metrics](/qa/handling-defensiveness-around-red-scorecard-metrics).
• Reframe critical feedback: Help team members understand that identifying a peer's performance issue is an act of service aimed at helping the business scale, not a personal attack. This helps to [stop the blame game during meetings](/qa/using-accountability-chart-to-stop-blame-in-ids).
• Demand truthfulness: True operational excellence requires a team that cares enough to share difficult truths.

Related questions

• [How do I get them to open up and share vulnerability?](/qa/building-vulnerability-and-safety-in-leadership)
• [How do I know if my team actually trusts each other, or if they are just playing nice to avoid conflict?](/qa/leadership-team-trust-healthy-conflict)
• [What happens if a key leadership team member repeatedly misses their quarterly Rock commitments or fails to run their departmental Level 10 Meetings?](/qa/handling-leadership-team-accountability-failures)
• [How do we use the Accountability Chart to stop the blame game during meetings?](/qa/using-accountability-chart-to-stop-blame-in-ids)