5 Sure-shot Ways to Destroy Your Team’s Trust
Tried, tested, and terrible leadership tips.
Trust is the glue in any organization. Lose it, and everything falls apart.
And yet, leaders break trust all the time, often without meaning to. But if you really want to tank your team’s morale, drive your top talent away, and leave a legacy of dysfunction, here’s your blueprint.
Just follow these 5 easy ways to destroy your team’s trust quickly, and decisively (and remember thank me later).
‼️ Warning: reverse psychology ahead. If you’re serious about building trust, do the opposite.
1. Don’t Listen. Ever
Listening is overrated. Why hear your team out when you already have the answers?
Cut people off mid-sentence. Dismiss their concerns.
Tell them why their ideas won’t work even before they finish talking. Better yet, call it “constructive feedback.”
This is the fastest way to kill psychological safety. When people feel unheard, they stop speaking up. Then they stop caring. Mission accomplished.
💡 If you’d rather not be the boss everyone avoids at lunch:
2. Say One Thing, Do Another
Tell your team you value work-life balance. Then, ping them at 11 pm.
Say “I trust you”, and then micromanage everything they do. Never let them off the hook.
Break promises. Shift priorities without explanation. Move the goalposts. Blame others when things go wrong.
Inconsistency erodes trust like acid. People don’t just listen to what you say, they watch what you do. Have fun confusing the heck out of your team.
💡 If you’d rather not confuse the heck out of your team:
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3. Keep Everyone in the Dark
Transparency? That’s for amateurs.
Keep decisions behind closed doors. Share information on a “need-to-know” basis. Let people find out about major changes at the same time as LinkedIn does.
Bonus points for using cryptic language in updates.
When people don’t know what’s going on, they assume the worst. They hang out on Blind, which is exactly what you want.
💡 If you’d rather not have your team swapping rumors:
4. Micromanage Everything
Nothing builds confidence like being told exactly what to do… every step of the way.
Hover over tasks. Check in constantly. Rewrite your team’s work just to “polish” it. Be the required approval for every decision.
If your team feels like they’re being treated like children, congratulations! Mission accomplished.
💡 If you’d rather not drive your top performers straight to LinkedIn:
5. Ignore the Human Side
Your team isn’t made of people. They’re just resources, right? Rows on a spreadsheet.
Skip 1:1s. Forget birthdays. Never ask how they’re doing. Who cares about the people, what matters is the bottom line.
It’s just business, after all. Everyone is dispensable, and they better not forget that. Ever.
💡 If you’d rather not treat your team like office furniture:
Bottom Line: Trust is Easy to Lose, Hard to Earn
Trust is built over time. But you can lose it over the small actions:
The meeting where you interrupted, again.
The team member’s work anniversary that you ignored
The 1-on-1 meeting that you didn’t show up to, without notice
Trust is the foundation of any organization, and is the glue that keeps your team together.
So, what do you want to do? Lose trust, or build it? It’s your call.
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Nice one.