Rebuilding trust and restoring psychological safety when leadership credibility takes a hit

05/12/2025

Recently, in an organisation, the CEO made a clear promise to employees. A message that team leaders also reinforced to their own teams. A few months later, the exact opposite of what they promised happened.


👉The CEO lost his credibility and perceived reilability.
👉Team leaders had to explain something they didn't cause and had no decision over, their own credibility was affected, and tension with their teams began to grow.
👉The employees lost their sense of psychological safety and their trust and engagement had decreased.

🎁 Solution-focused question and exercise for organisations / CEOs

❓ What can we do now as an organisation to reduce the impact of the loss of trust and credibility and strengthen employees' sense of safety again?

💡 Excercise:

  1. Formulate one message that can be communicated immediately, acknowledging the situation. Share some WHYs if you can.
  2. Define concrete steps you will take within the next five working days to increase trust and transparency in communikcation. Examples:

               - introducing a short weekly leadership team update

               - setting up a leadership support system, routine

               - introducing a fixed, regular Q&A slot

               - start using a 'what we know / what we don't know yet' communication structure

      3.        Build this into the organization's routine.

🎁 Solution-focused question and exercise for team leaders

❓ How can I reconnect with my team now, strengthen psychological safety, reduce the uncertainty and loss of trust without making promises I cannot be sure to keep?

💡Excercise:

  1. Write down what you think your team is likely feeling and thinking right now. You can use an empathy map.
  2. Write down questions they would probably ask if they felt completely safe to do so. Answer them honestly for yourself first. Think about what and how you can share.
  3. Start conversations with your team.

              ▪️Choose simple, present-focused sentences to open the conversations. E.g.:

                    "I'd like to understand how you experience this."   "I'm here, and I want to hear your questions."

             ▪️Normalize feelings without trying to fix them.

             ▪️Share only what you know for certain, clearly and simply.

             ▪️Ask for feedback: "What should I do more of or less of to support you right now?"

             ▪️End the conversation forward-looking E.g.: "Let's agree on the next small step that would make                      the biggest difference for you."

       4.      Repeat. Build this into your team's regular routine.

This presence and openness reduces tension and creates the first step towards rebuilding trust and credibility.