Why Doesn't My Team Trust Me?
By Cristina Stensvaag, Co-Founder of LeaderReps.
It is a hard question to sit with, but an important one. If people hold back, guard their words, or do not bring you problems until it is too late, trust is thin. The causes are usually not dramatic. They are small, repeated, and fixable.
The short answer
Common causes are inconsistency, broken small commitments, and reactions that are hard to predict. If people cannot guess which version of you will show up, they stay guarded. Getting steadier and more predictable is usually where to start.
Trust erodes in small, repeated moments
Trust is rarely lost in one big event. It erodes in the small stuff. The follow-up that never came. The commitment quietly dropped. The meeting where you were sharp for no clear reason. Your team is constantly reading these moments and deciding which version of you is safe to deal with today. That is the uncomfortable truth in When Are You Unpredictable.
Signs your team does not fully trust you
Watch for the tells. People stop bringing you bad news early. They agree in the room and do something else later. They over-prepare before talking to you. They keep conversations surface-level. None of these mean your team dislikes you. They mean people are managing you instead of trusting you.
Where to start fixing it
Begin with reliability and predictability, because they are the fastest levers. Keep your small commitments, since whether you do what you said is where people form their picture of you. Be the same person on the hard days as the easy ones, so people can stop guessing. And when you have broken trust, own it plainly rather than defending it. Steadiness, repeated, is what brings people back.
Read next
For the full framework, see how to build trust as a leader.
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