Common Leadership Mistakes to Avoid: What If There’s No Vertical Trust

Table of contents

• Why Trust Is Important?

• How Lack of Trust Looks Like

• Action Plan to Avoid Trust Mistakes

• Conclusions

Why Trust Is Important?

In any organization, hierarchy comes in two forms:

• Vertical — between different levels of seniority, from team members to top management.

• Horizontal — between peers at the same level.

  
  

The same applies to trust. It can flow upward, downward or across a team. Today we’ll look at one of the common leadership mistakes to avoid: neglecting vertical trust, and specifically, what happens when top management lacks trust in how processes are handled by their teams.

Processes are like the foundation of a house. If that foundation is shaky, meaning if trust is missing from the top, issues begin to snowball. Eventually, cracks appear in the structure of the whole organization.

How Lack of Trust Looks Like

So what happens when a top manager doesn’t trust the team’s way of doing things and steps in to “fix” it all alone? By “top manager,” we’re talking about someone in senior leadership – maybe a C-level executive, maybe the business owner. It depends on the size of the company.

Here’s what usually follows:

• The top manager interferes directly, disrupting the team’s established flow.

• Lacking the time or context to dive deep, they rush from one fix to another, trying different solutions without fully testing assumptions.

• The team, sensing a lack of trust, reacts with resistance – sometimes even hostility – toward any new process changes.

• People stop proposing improvements altogether. Why bother if their ideas won’t be heard or appreciated?

• And when the new changes, introduced by the boss, don’t work, the team doesn’t just question the solution – they lose confidence in the leader personally.

Let’s be clear: oversight is essential. Leaders should step in when things go off track. But if you’re aiming to reimagine team processes entirely, there’s a more thoughtful way to do it – one that builds trust instead of breaking it.

Action Plan to Avoid Trust Mistake

Here’s how to approach process changes in a win-win style:

1. Diagnose first. Make a clear list of where you see issues in the current processes.

   1. Resist the temptation to jump to fast conclusions. Make sure your list comes from a deep, systematic analysis of the root cause. Use verified techniques such as the 5 Whys or Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagrams.

2. Involve the team. Share the list and ask “Why do we do things this way?” and “What improvements do you see?”

   1. Working together with the team guarantees that everyone is aligned on the real challenges. Only those who are deeply involved in the process can reveal why certain problems exist and why they persist. 

   2. Keep discussions evidence-based and free from assumptions about the root cause (see point #1 😉).

3. Co-create solutions. Ensure the final solution is a shared one, with everyone’s voice counted.

   1. Once root causes are clear, invite the team to suggest possible fixes. This builds trust and ensures solutions are practical and context-aware.

   2. If the team doesn’t have clear answers, offer your suggestions. But be considerate and do it as a collaborative next step, not a top-down mandate.

4. Bring in expert help. Change management is a discipline of its own. Proven frameworks make it easier. For example, Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, which is especially useful for deep, strategic change.

Conclusions

Ultimately, trusting your team with the how doesn’t mean stepping back. It means stepping in differently. It’s about leading, not controlling. And that shift – while subtle – is often the line between a team that merely follows orders and one that takes ownership.

The truth is, sustainable change rarely comes from mandates. In fact, relying on mandates is itself a leadership mistake to avoid. Real leadership and culture change grow from trust, shared vision, and a willingness to listen before you lead. Because if you want your team to thrive, it starts with how you show up as a leader.

Stay tuned for more - we have so much stuff to cover together!