We recently had to let go of a long-term leadership team member, and now the remaining leaders are walking on eggshells. The trust is completely gone, and instead of having healthy, open conflict to solve issues, everyone is defensive and hyper-focused on protecting their own department. How do we rebuild vulnerability-based trust so we can get back to solving real problems?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a leadership team experiences a major shakeup, trust can erode quickly if the remaining members feel insecure about their own positions. This defensiveness leads to artificial harmony, where people keep their heads down and avoid speaking the truth. To rebuild vulnerability based trust, you must address the elephant in the room.

Start by holding an honest session to reinforce why the change was made. Frame it around the Accountability Chart and the needs of the business, not personal failure. Remind the team that your goal is to build a healthy, cohesive, and functional leadership team that can scale the company to a clean exit.

To foster healthy relationships and reduce defensive behaviors, you need to lead by example. As the owner or Integrator, share your own vulnerabilities, mistakes, and fears first. Use tools like the trust building exercises from the EOS® process to help the team understand each other on a deeper level. Encourage them to engage in healthy, unfiltered conflict during your Level 10 Meeting™ sessions by actively calling out passive aggressive behavior. When your leaders see that challenging each other does not lead to punishment, but rather to better solutions and faster results, the defensiveness will melt away and genuine trust will return.