Why trust erodes with repeated ethical shortcuts

Trust erosion isn't about big betrayals. It's about tiny cracks no one addresses. Your leadership team looks perfect on paper: 🧠 Smart people 🎯 Shared goals 💪 Strong skills But something's off. ⚡ Meetings feel tense. ⏸️ Decisions stall. 🏜️ Innovation dries up. The culprit? Trust microbreaches - those tiny violations that silently poison executive teams from within. ⚡ 7 microbreaches destroying your leadership team: 1. The hijacked idea that loses its original owner 🎭 ↳ "Great suggestion from Marketing" becomes "As I was saying earlier..." ↳ Creates invisible scorecards no one discusses 2. Feedback shared about colleagues, not with them 🗣️ ↳ "Between us, I'm concerned about Sarah's approach" ↳ Makes psychological safety impossible 3. The subtle eye roll during someone's presentation 👁️ ↳ Non-verbal disagreement without accountability ↳ Signals to others which ideas are actually valued 4. Selective listening during team discussions 🎧 ↳ Full attention for some, emails checked during others ↳ Establishes whose input "really matters" 5. Showing up late to only certain people's meetings ⏰ ↳ Time becomes a weapon of priority ↳ Patterns speak louder than apologies 6. The side conversation after meetings 🚪 ↳ Real decisions happen in hallways, not boardrooms ↳ Fragments your team into information silos 7. The pre-meeting lobbying for decisions 🎪 ↳ "I wanted to get your thoughts before the group discussion" ↳ Transforms collaboration into theater The danger? These moments happen so frequently they become invisible. But your team keeps score. Always. 🌟 Breaking the pattern requires immediate action: 1. Name the pattern in real-time ↳ "I noticed that idea was dismissed, then accepted when restated" ↳ Visibility disrupts what thrives in silence 2. Create microrepairs daily ↳ "I interrupted you earlier - I'd like to hear your complete thought" ↳ Small fixes compound faster than offsite retreats 3. Document specific trust behaviors ↳ "We address concerns directly with each other, not about each other" ↳ Reference them when breaches occur ❌ High-performing teams aren't perfect teams. ✅ They're teams that repair trust faster than it breaks. Which microbreach is quietly eroding your leadership team today? Please share below ⬇️ ♻️ Repost to help your network build leadership teams that last. 🔔 Follow Eva Gysling, OLY for more.

Ask any founder about their biggest failure, and they’ll point to the obvious one. Big failures get headlines. But the real collapse rarely gets noticed. Products rarely die from a single mistake. They bleed out in silence every time trust is traded for a shortcut. Betray your best users, lose your edge. Your earliest adopters do more than provide feedback or cheer from the sidelines. They troubleshoot, stretch your product, and set new expectations. When their needs go unmet, or when you break their workflows, you are losing the resilience that keeps your product alive in tough moments. Most teams only notice the damage after the fact, when those users are already gone. How you end matters as much as how you launch. Product migrations and sunsets are never just technical. Every missed detail, whether it’s a broken export, a lost file, or a confusing transition, creates another fracture in user trust. The companies that get this right pay attention to the small stuff and respect what users built with them. The ones that treat it as a checklist always leave a mess behind. A clean, clear ending tells your customers that their time and work mattered. Chasing breadth, losing depth. Expanding into new markets or adding features can look like progress. What usually happens is you lose the discipline and detail that made people care in the first place. Winning new jobs means putting in more effort, not less. Most teams spread themselves thin and become forgettable. The teams that win stay focused long enough to build depth users can’t find anywhere else. Friction is a slow exit. Forced signups and hidden paywalls push users to start searching for alternatives, even if they don’t leave right away. The short-term gains from adding friction almost always come at the cost of long-term loyalty. In the end, trust is what keeps people around. Lose it, and all you’ve done is start a countdown for your competitors. The pattern repeats: The slow decline of a product begins each time trust is traded for a shortcut or a quick win. Protect user trust as fiercely as you fight for every launch or metric. The best teams never make their top users regret the energy or belief they put into the product.

“Just tell them what they want to hear.” My colleague whispered this to me before a stakeholder readout where our data showed results they would not like. I had a choice: massage the numbers to make everyone happy, or present the truth and risk disappointing key stakeholders. I chose the truth. The stakeholders were not thrilled. But they appreciated the honesty. Six months later, they gave us the biggest project yet. Here is what I learned: Integrity is not just about doing the right thing. It is about building sustainable relationships. Short-term wins built on half-truths become long-term losses of trust. The most successful professionals I know have one thing in common: they tell the truth, even when it is uncomfortable. They deliver bad news with solutions, not excuses. They admit when they do not know something instead of pretending. They take responsibility for mistakes before anyone asks. They keep promises, even small ones. Integrity is not about being perfect. It is about being honest about your imperfections. In a world full of shortcuts and convenient truths, integrity is your competitive advantage. What situation tested your integrity and taught you the most about its value?

I'll never forget reading my 360 feedback. "Dora prioritizes harmony and being liked over speaking uncomfortable truths." That hit hard. Because they were right. My team didn't need a cheerleader. They needed a leader. Since then, I've noticed similar patterns with the clients I coach. These habits look helpful,  but they erode trust: 1. Volunteering Your Team Without Asking ↳ You promise to help before checking capacity ↳ "Let me check our team capacity and get back to you tomorrow" 2. Pretending to Love Their Hobbies ↳ CEO mentions wine, you become a fake sommelier ↳ "I don't know much about wine, but I'd love to learn. What got you interested?" 3. Making Every Decision by Consensus ↳ You poll 12 people, still gathering input 6 weeks later ↳ Get input from 2-3 key people, then make the call and own it 4. Avoiding Difficult Conversations ↳ Top performer is rude, you drop hints instead of addressing it ↳ "I've noticed tension with the team. Let's talk about what's happening" 5. Over-Apologizing for Tough Decisions ↳ Your excessive apologies create team panic ↳ "We need to cut 10% from the budget. Here's why and how we'll handle it" 6. Trying to "Save" Struggling Team Members Alone ↳ You quietly redo their work at night ↳ "I've noticed you're struggling with X. What support do you need to succeed?" 7. Hiding Challenges to Keep Everyone Comfortable ↳ Major client threatens to leave, but "everything's great!" ↳ "Our client has some concerns, here's our plan" The fastest-rising leaders I work with all share one trait:  They'd rather be respected than liked. It's uncomfortable. It's also why they rise. ♻️ Repost to help your network ➕ Follow Dora Vanourek for more

🗣️ "I Don't Want To Hear Bad News, Just Get Me The Results I Want!" How often have we heard this from managers and executives? Business leaders often fail to appreciate the impact such phrases can have on their subordinates. While it may seem clear to them that this doesn't mean resorting to unethical or illegal actions to meet OKRs and KPIs, the reality is different for employees who depend on their paychecks to survive. 💸 Such language can exacerbate an already competitive, dog-eat-dog work environment. Employees desperate to prove themselves or secure their jobs might believe that taking shortcuts or doing whatever it takes to meet targets is acceptable. They may think that their actions are in the organization's best interest and assume that their bosses will protect them if things go wrong. 🚩 In reality, bosses are more likely to throw these employees under the bus if things go south, leading to their termination. 🚌 We must also recognize the imbalanced power dynamics between employees and their superiors. As a head of a control function, you might flag a compliance risk to your superior, who dismisses it for 'commercial reasons.' You think you've done your job. However, if the risk materializes, the same superior might conveniently blame you for not emphasizing the severity of the risk. 🤷♂️ Interestingly, we are witnessing this exact scenario unfold in the Wirecard trial, where CEO Markus Braun's defence is pretty much built around ignorance and the notion that he simply set targets and expected his subordinates to meet them without delving into the details of how they did so. What he does not say is how resistant he was to bad news to the point of tyranny. This toxic cycle must end. Leadership should foster an environment where ethical behavior and transparent communication are prioritized over unrealistic demands and implicit threats. Only then can we build organizations that thrive on trust, integrity, and mutual respect. 🌱🤝 #Leadership #BusinessEthics #RiskManagement #HR #Management #Wirecard

After decades in leadership, I’ve witnessed the fragility of trust firsthand. Team trust is the invisible thread holding everything together, and it isn’t built in grand gestures. It’s earned - or lost - in those small moments when we think no one’s watching. What really stands out to me as trust-breakers are seemingly small events - things like forgetting to acknowledge contributions or showing favoritism in meetings. But it’s these issues that can have seismic impacts on team dynamics. People notice when leaders don’t give credit where it’s due, and they feel unappreciated as a result - creating a domino effect of lower morale and productivity. Here’s a hard truth I’ve learned in my time leading teams: While trust takes years to build, it can evaporate in seconds. The most damaging part? It’s not always about major ethical breaches. Sometimes it’s those subtle, throwaway moments - forgetting to acknowledge contributions, showing favoritism in meetings - that create hairline fractures in the foundation of your leadership. The trickiest part is that once trust is broken, there’s often no way back. I’ve seen talented leaders forced to leave roles not because of dramatic failures, but because they couldn’t rebuild trust after seemingly minor missteps. Ultimately, what I’ve come to realize is that trustworthiness isn’t just a leadership principle. It’s your most valuable currency. Guard it zealously in every interaction, no matter how small, because once you’ve created that bond of trust, your team can do incredible things. #ethics #organizationalculture #businessintegrity

Trust doesn’t come from what you say—it comes from what you do. Leaders often preach collaboration and transparency, but when actions favor output over principles, trust erodes rapidly. Here’s the truth: trust is built—or destroyed—in the small moments of leadership. Inconsistency ends up smelling a whole lot like a lack of integrity, and your reports will absolutely notice if your actions don't align with your words. When a direct report struggles, the easy choice is to avoid the hard conversation. But that moment? It’s your chance to teach, to support, and to build trust. Walking away from an opportunity to have a straightforward conversation robs that individual of a learning experience. A culture that values outcomes over behaviors kills innovation. Teams stop taking risks when mistakes aren’t safe. And there is no reason to favor outcomes (or delivery) at the expense of the behaviors, because they can (and must) exist simultaneously to truly have a high performance team. Leaders must align actions with their words. That’s the foundation of a high-performance, high-trust culture. Leadership without trust isn’t leadership—it’s management. I would love to hear shared stories about the impact that trust--or lack thereof--has had on your team in the past. What’s one action you’ve taken that strengthened trust on your team? What's one action you've seen that damaged trust?

Last week, I had the chance to close a deal that would have covered 70% of my Q1 target in one go. But I chose not to do it. - - - - Here's what happened. The client wanted their entire organisation to be active on social media and was ready to purchase 1,000 advocacy licenses. But there was a huge red flag. They had never run an advocacy program before. Alarm bells were ringing. I’ve seen how this story ends. Unhappy customers, no scale, and then they churn. - - - - Instead of taking the easy win, I recommended we start small. With just 10% of the licenses they wanted. I proposed a growth plan with a fixed cost for scaling their program as it matured. Because the worst-case scenario for our business isn’t missing a target. It’s having licenses sit unused on a shelf. That’s a recipe for dissatisfaction and mistrust. The short-term gain would have been hitting my target, almost guaranteed. But the long-term pain? The erosion of trust in me and our business. - - - - - Overselling is a common problem in sales. I came across a LinkedIn post last week that highlighted this issue from Danny Gelfenbaum ☁️ : "Salesforce AEs are closing monstrous contracts with companies that don’t fully know what they need. They sell expensive licenses and products, knowing the client won’t use them for months, maybe even years.” Why does this happen? Quota Pressure: Salespeople are chasing numbers, at the expense of client success. Knowledge Gap: Clients don't fully understand what they’re buying or lack the expertise to push back. Short-Term Thinking: Deals get signed, and implementation teams are left to clean up the mess. - - - - - - This approach doesn’t help anyone in the long run. Clients pay for products and licenses they don’t need. Frustration builds from wasted budgets and stalled projects. Trust in the platform erodes before the journey even begins. The entire ecosystem’s reputation takes a hit. - - - - Looking back at the deals I closed last year, many involved clients I had sold to in my first 12 months at Oktopost. These clients had moved to new companies and bought our product again. They had started small, proved the model, and scaled when it made sense. That’s the power of doing the right thing for your clients. The best salespeople understand that trust is the foundation of long-term success. When you prioritise your client’s needs over your own targets, you’re not just closing deals. You’re building relationships that will pay dividends for years to come. - - - - It starts with being honest and transparent with your clients. If they don’t fully understand what they’re buying, take the time to educate them. If they’re not ready to scale, help them start small and grow at a sustainable pace. Your goal isn’t just to sell a product; it’s to help your client succeed. Short-term wins might feel good in the moment, but they’re rarely worth the cost of a damaged reputation.