Building Trust in Leadership Teams

 

Today’s fast-changing world demands leadership teams that can solve problems in real time, communicate clearly and execute as one. This only happens when leaders trust each other deeply and are fully aligned on the strategy, priorities, and behaviours required to move the organisation forward.

But for most organisations, this isn’t the reality.

Book an Executive Team Health Check

The Leadership Team Challenge 

 

A high-performing organisation depends on a leadership team that is both aligned and trusted. Ask yourself:

  • Does your executive team collaborate effectively to solve complex problems?
  • Do they show genuine interest in one another’s work and perspectives?
  • Do they fully believe in the strategy and communicate it with confidence to their teams?
  • Can you trust them to deliver on time and to a high standard?
  • Do they challenge one another to be their best?
  • Are they prioritising the needs of their own department over the success of the leadership team and organisation as a whole?

Research confirms this is a widespread issue.

In many organisations, the C‑suite simply isn’t operating as a true team. Only 31% of C‑suite executives say the leadership team is their primary team.

When senior leaders are asked about “their team,” they are more likely to point to their own function - marketing, finance, technology - and the people who report directly to them. This misalignment drives behaviours that create silos, dysfunction and underperformance across the business.

And the misalignment is often invisible.  Unfortunately, most executive teams believe they are aligned, even when the data says otherwise. Only 18% strongly agree their team consistently demonstrates the behaviours that define true alignment: communication, integrity, accountability and follow-through.

This gap between perception and reality is where organisations lose their edge.


 

The Cost of Misalignment and Low Trust in the Senior Leadership Team

 

When trust and alignment break down:

  • silos form between departments,
  • innovation slows,
  • decision-making becomes confused or delayed,
  • communication becomes fragmented,
  • confidence in leadership drops, and
  • engagement suffers and turnover rises.
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Leadership Team Development

 

I help CEOs accelerate their goals - often 2-3 times faster - by building leadership teams that:

  • Make decisions and execute strategy as one cohesive unit
  • Engage in open, energetic and productive dialogue
  • Collaborate effectively, sharing knowledge and insights freely
  • Build credibility with stakeholders by consistently delivering the right outcomes
  • Reignite excitement for work while reducing people-related challenges
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How I Help Team Leadership

 

Most executives don’t realise they aren’t collaborating effectively and the full impact this has on the organisation.

To break through this cognitive bias, I use an exploratory five-step process that helps leadership teams understand why working harmoniously benefits both the organisation and their individual results.

These steps create stronger consensus, shared clarity and a genuine urgency to change.

Importantly, not all organisations require all five steps. The level of support needed is determined during Stage 1: Team & Stakeholder Research.

Through this structured approach, I help leadership teams build trust, align on strategy, and deliver sustained high performance:

Through this structured process, I help teams build trust, align on strategy and achieve lasting performance:

  1. Team & Stakeholder Research – Gather insights on current dynamics, strengths, and challenges across the leadership team. Using my SUCCEED Together® for Leadership Teams diagnostic (pre and post), as well as stakeholder interviews.

  2. Shared Aha – This is where results are revealed in a way that sparks open, honest conversation - especially by contrasting the CEO's experience with experience with the rest of the team’s. This split view reveals misaligned expectations and blind spots, and gives the CEO a chance to model candour and psychological safety. When the CEO engages openly with the data, it shows that real issues can be surfaced and resolved, uncovering hidden concerns and preventing future derailments - even when it seems “everything is fine.”

  1. Leadership Team Workshops – Facilitate discussions and exercises that build trust, alignment, and actionable behavioural changes — and provide practical tools leaders can use day-to-day to reinforce new habits.
  2. Executive Coaching – Provide targeted support for individual leaders who need additional guidance or want to deepen their impact beyond the team workshops, helping them model trust, improve collaboration, and enhance team performance.
  3. Continuous Improvement – Reassess the team using the SUCCEED Together® diagnostic, review progress, and run further workshops as needed — a “test, take action, measure impact” cycle that ensures improvements are real and lasting.
5 Key Steps for Leadership Team Improvement

There are two ways to get started. 

You can book a complimentary Executive Team Health Check to get a feel for how your team is performing. 

Alternatively, schedule a call with Marie-Claire now to discuss your situation and a plan to move forward.

Executive Team Health Check
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Building a Cohesive Leadership Team

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How Leadership Teams Rate the Workshops

 

Find out what CEOs and executives felt changed for them since the workshop.
250
%

increase in comfort when confronting other team members directly.

167
%

increase in comfort working with colleagues who they don't like as much as others.

125
%

increase in clarity on the behaviours needed to change to build trust in the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

"The challenges we were trying to overcome were a SLT that could work better together.   The work we did with Marie-Claire enabled people to have greater confidence to talk about the reasons behind the decisions they were making or challenges they were facing. Reactions that they had to work requests or deadlines… it helped them feel confident it was ok to go into a little bit more detail as to the context behind the situation.  And then reach agreed outcomes that were going to be better for both parties and ultimately, better for our business."
Alick Osbourne
CEO, Seasol International
"It was interesting to see that trust in our senior leadership team assessment results came through as something we all feel we need to work on as a team. It’s an 'Aha' moment that we all want to work on that. It’s taken us this workshop to put it out on the table really clearly. Really great to see."
COO
Midsize organisation
"Seeing the results of SUCCEED Together® were personal for me. My level of expectation of myself and people clearly can be a detriment if I’m doing too much. In the differentiation of the results, it tells me I need to do work around the level of expectation around myself and others."
CEO
Government
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Find out more about Leadership Team Development

 

If you want to learn more about what steps you can take to improve trust and alignment in your leadership team, then fill out this contact form or book a meeting here.