My leadership team agrees to decisions during our Level 10 Meeting™ but then actively undermines them or complains to their departments afterwards. How do we build the trust necessary to get real commitment and stop this passive-aggressive behavior?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This passive-aggressive friction points to a deep lack of safety and trust on your leadership team. When leaders agree in public but dissent in private, they are practicing artificial harmony. They do not feel safe enough to engage in healthy, unfiltered conflict during your sessions, so they save their real opinions for the hallway.

To fix this, you must build what Daniel Coyle calls structural safety. Trust is not built by singing songs around a campfire. It is built by sharing vulnerability. Start by practicing the Trust Creation Process outlined in the Trusted Advisor Fieldbook. This begins with you. As the leader, you must go first. Share a significant mistake you made or admit a personal limitation during your next quarterly session. This signals to the team that vulnerability is not only tolerated but required.

Once safety is established, raise the bar for entry into conflict. During your next Level 10 Meeting, if you sense a leader is quietly withdrawing or giving half-hearted agreement, call them out directly. Force them to state their objections. Use the EOS® tool of IDS® to dig to the root of the disagreement. Make it clear that silent disagreement is a violation of your team rules.

Once a decision is made after a healthy debate, every leader must actively support it. Utilize the concept of cascading messages. At the end of every meeting, spend five minutes agreeing on exactly what needs to be communicated to the rest of the company. This ensures a unified front and prevents passive-aggressive erosion of trust.