Rebuilding Trust, Teamwork Struggles, and Managing An Outperformer [Office Hours #014]

Your questions. Answered.

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of our Office Hours newsletter. Every Tuesday, we tackle reader questions covering the most demanding challenges of management and leadership. (We share our best free content on LinkedIn).

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In this week's edition, we answer:

1. How do you rebuild trust with your team after making a major mistake as a leader?

2. How do you handle a situation where a team member is technically skilled but struggles with teamwork and communication?

3. How do you lead a team when you have one person who consistently outperforms everyone else?

Let’s get started…

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Question 1:

Emily from London
How do you rebuild trust with your team after making a major mistake as a leader?

Response:
Dear Emily,

Rebuilding trust after a leadership mistake is one of the most difficult but defining moments in a leader’s career. Trust is built over time through consistency and credibility—but it can be damaged quickly when mistakes happen. The key to regaining trust is to respond with honesty, accountability, and a clear plan for moving forward.

1. Take Immediate and Full Accountability

The worst thing you can do is minimize the mistake or shift blame onto others. Taking responsibility—without defensiveness—shows integrity and maturity.

Start by addressing the mistake openly and honestly with your team:

"I want to address what happened with [specific mistake]. I made the decision to [explain action], and it didn’t produce the outcome we needed. That’s on me, and I take full responsibility for it."

Avoid vague or defensive language like “Mistakes were made” or “Things didn’t go as planned.” Owning it directly reinforces that you’re not trying to protect yourself at the expense of the team.