Can a leadership team execute without trust?
Have you ever sat in a room where everyone knew something wasn’t right, yet nobody dared to say it?
I have. While living in NZ, I was coaching a leadership team when a question about their plan’s realism fell like a lead balloon. You could feel the discomfort. Afterwards, I learned several executives had the same concern, but no one wanted to be the first to speak.
That moment wasn’t unusual. I’ve seen it in many executive teams: when people don’t feel safe to challenge each other, silence fills the gaps. And silence at the top is deadly for execution.
When I asked 24 senior leaders to rank what enables execution, psychological safety came seventh of fifteen. Relational engagement came last. One told me plainly: "Relational engagement is a way of oiling the wheels, but it is not going to deliver strategy."
Then I asked them what was actually going wrong. "There is a fear of others; it holds back the convos we need to have." "When it is not psychologically safe, it impacts the ability for the right conversations." "The CEO was avoidant of being challenged, meaning healthy challenging conversations did not happen."
Leaders rank trust low when asked what matters. They name it first when asked what's broken.
Trust is confidence in your peers’ intentions. Stephen M. R. Covey argues that trust is an economic driver, not a soft one: when it's high, things move faster and cost less. Psychological safety, as Amy Edmondson defines it, is the belief you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up. They’re not the same, but they’re inseparable: trust lets you take risks together; psychological safety lets you surface the risks in the first place.
What erodes both? Suspicion, avoidance, and leaders prioritising their own interests over the collective. When that happens, plans get rubber-stamped, hard conversations don’t happen, and execution fragments instantly.
When an executive team can't challenge each other, it's rarely about the people. It's what happens when nobody has made it safe, or expected. That's the work in Leadership.
So, what can leaders do differently?
- Normalise healthy challenge in your executive team - make it expected, not avoided.
- Ask the question no one else is asking, to show it’s safe to do so.
- Admit mistakes openly, and notice how quickly others follow.
- Notice where you default to suspicion and replace it with curiosity.
- Build your self-awareness: know your triggers and work with them.
- Invest time in getting to know your peers beyond their role.
- Be kind - see each other as humans first, leaders second.
Execution doesn’t just depend on plans and processes - it depends on trust and psychological safety. They’re the hidden accelerators that let leaders speak up, learn fast, and act boldly. Without them, even the sharpest strategy stays on paper.
This is part of lever 1 (Leadership & Trust) of the Strategy Execution by Design Model. See the full framework →
Not sure which of the seven conditions is holding your execution back? Take the Strategy Execution Maturity Model Assessment →
Written by Rebecca Reti, strategy and execution consultant working with boards and executive teams across Australia and New Zealand.