Looking back at the last couple years, and what happened as I stepped into my role at Humana. The team had just been through a major reduction in force, and my co-lead and I were brought in from outside to help put the team back together. I knew I was confident I could help them get there. The key was to work with the team to make that a reality.

What changes when you inherit a team with strained stakeholder relationships?

For starters, continue to be the leader you know you can be. You don’t change who you are. The key is to find the right tools to address what the team needs from you.

Stakeholder relationships become strained due to a breach of trust over time. Promises get broken, and communication carries an undercurrent of friction.

What told you trust had been damaged?

When a team is burnt out, and disengaged, that feeling will spread into everything they touch. Start with the smallest piece and help them heal.

The previous leadership consumed every ounce of goodwill from those around them by passing the blame, offloading work and responsibility on to other teams, or just ignoring the impact their decisions would have on their peers and customers. This brought out chaos at multiple levels.

When the team is expected to be the experts at a particular domain, but those around them are not willing to listen or engage with that expertise, it doesn’t matter how good they might be at that work. Others will find their own ways to work around the team’s presence in that system.

What did you discover by listening to the team and its stakeholders?

Listen to the team. Then listen to their customers.

Really listen. Don’t put together solutions until you are positive they feel heard.

They likely already know what they need, but don’t have the agency or the bandwidth to execute. What I heard often, was “I know how to do my job. I don’t know why it matters, or how it helps the larger organization.”

They knew what to do, just now why or how to do it. As Simon Sinek says, “Start with Why.”

Once they felt heard, and had stake in what happened next, I knew they needed to find their purpose. Once the team had that vision and purpose, they could use that to drive their own agency. Their engagement with their customers grew beyond anything they could see in themselves when they were so down.

Which early commitments helped people start believing again?

The listening had to happen first. That was the first commitment to the team’s customers. They had to own the engagement and feedback that came in from the customers and stakeholders.

After that, then the team could start making commitments: building on sprints, moving to quarters, and finally building a vision around a shared roadmap that could serve those most in need.

What changed in your own understanding of leadership?

I learned that teams can become a powerhouse once more with the proper care and feeding. I have also learned that can be undone with a careless word or an abused trust.

When you advocate for your team, cause, or principle, there will be those who will work against you. Don’t go up against that resistance directly. Work with them. Find common ground, and speak to their values.

Especially in business, chances are everyone is looking for a similar outcome, but the disagreement is about the method. So work with those in authority that a healthier method will produce better longer-term results.

This quarter is not the only quarter in the Infinite Game. You and your people have to run a marathon, not a sprint.

Conclusion

Looking back, rebuilding trust meant giving people the chance to feel heard, understand why their work mattered, and make commitments they could follow through on. My co-lead and I could help create those conditions, but the team had to experience that progress for themselves. So did their customers.

Think about a team you lead, work alongside, or depend on. Where has trust worn thin? What would you need to hear—and understand—before trying to fix it? And what small commitment could you follow through on that would give someone a reason to start believing again?