Lectura minutos
A good leader can transform a team’s culture. A bad one can too. But in the opposite direction. I experienced both in the same company in less than a year. And what I learned stayed with me forever.
I joined a multinational technology company to build and scale a new department. And from the very first minute, my leader gave me something so simple yet so rare: real trust. He opened doors for me, supported me, let me do my thing, and above all, he was there for me. That didn’t just make us grow. It made us a team.
Some time later, the organization made a change and we came under the authority of another executive. From the outset, it was different. There was no open conflict. There were no ideological differences. There was something worse: absence.
It wasn’t that we never spoke. Occasionally, we did have meetings. But there was no connection. No listening.
❌ He didn’t reply to messages or emails.
❌ He didn’t show up for one-on-one meetings.
❌ He never showed any real interest in understanding what we did or who we were.
However, he did send us a group email talking about how much confidence he had in us.
📩 “I have complete faith in you,” he said in the email.
🫥 But what we were all thinking was, “You have faith? But you’re not even here!”
That email reminded me of an anecdote from another of my professional experiences. There was an executive who, every time he came to the office, would greet me by asking, “How’s your daughter?” That would have been fine, except that I don’t have a daughter. I have two sons. I tried to tell him several times… but he never stayed to hear my answer. The senior executive had learned in some MBA program that asking personal questions builds trust. What he didn’t learn is that if you don’t do it authentically, if your interest isn’t genuine, you create the opposite effect. In fact, when he left, the employees would joke about the hypocrisy of the question.
Returning to the situation at the multinational technology company, in a move that initially seemed appropriate and aware that there was a structural leadership problem, the company decided to send middle management to a FranklinCovey leadership training (which is expensive). Curiously, the executives did not attend.
In one of the sessions, a director—who reported to the same executive as me—unintentionally blurted out what we were all thinking: “The people who should be in this training aren’t here.” 💬
There was silence. And then laughter. It was awkward… but it was what we were all thinking.
As was predictable, conflicts soon arose. Teams were not committed to the organization’s goals, and people tried to shirk their responsibilities by shifting them onto others. The results came, and boy did they come… accompanied by a wave of mass layoffs. Of course, the executive did not show his face, either in person or virtually.
Thanks to that experience, I learned firsthand that trust is the number one pillar on which to build high-performance teams. Without trust, there are no results. Trust must necessarily start with the leadership teams, is built on a daily basis, and is demonstrated through actions.
The 5 characteristics of a cohesive team – Patrick Lencioni’s pyramid
Have you ever found yourself in similar situations?
If you lead people, you know that trust cannot be imposed: it must be earned.
We know we are not the only ones who think this way. At Dauxa, we are convinced that there are better ways of working. That is why we support leaders and teams in building cultures where trust is not a decorative value or an empty word, but an everyday practice. We do this through team coaching, practical and fun training, and support.
In our learning proposal, “The Leader’s Journey,” we help you align your values with your actions and build consistent, authentic, and transformative leadership. Keep in mind, however, that there is no point in signing up for this course if the people who are the protagonists of change do not attend.
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