Key Takeaways from our March 2026 Webinar
Every month, SkillCharter hosts a free webinar for leaders. In March, Kate Cockrill covered what to do after trust breaks and what to do when it happens. Here’s the full breakdown.
The Big Idea
Trust is the foundation of good leadership. However, no leader can force other people to trust them and no leader can avoid occasionally letting people down. So when a trust rupture happens, knowing how to repair with your team is an important leadership skill.
The CBI Trust Framework
When it comes to trust, there are three main elements that we look for in leaders.. If one of these factors is in question, trust can rupture.
- Competence. Do the leader’s promises line up with what actually gets delivered?
- Benevolence. Does the leader genuinely care about their team and look out for their best interests?
- Integrity. Is the leader honest and upfront or does something feel off about their motives?
Understanding these three elements can help leaders diagnose the origin of a rupture and target their repair on what matters to the team. For example, a competence gap requires an acknowledgement and a description of how they will remedy the issue. An integrity gap may require that the leader share more openly about the tradeoffs they were balancing in a particular decision.
The Escalation Pathway
Trust ruptures that go unaddressed can fester. When trust breaks and it is not acknowledged or repaired team disappointment can escalate along the following pathway.
- Disagreement. “I don’t agree with what happened here.”
- Frustration. “This shouldn’t have happened. It was preventable.”
- Doubt about motives. “If we cared about this, how did it happen?”
- Personalization. “I’m probably not safe here.”
- Coalition building. “Other people aren’t safe either. We should form a group.”
- Labeling. “These people are ___ and they fundamentally don’t get ___.”
- Justice-seeking. “If it won’t be resolved here, it’ll get resolved somewhere else.”
Intervention at stage one or two is uncomfortable but doable for most leaders. By stage five or six, the loss of trust can cause team fragmentation, negatively affecting the team’s ability to commit to work together and achieve results. Identifying the rupture and taking action early in the process can help leaders avoid these more dire consequences..
The 4 D’s That Make It Worse
Leaders may not be aware of a trust rupture until someone on their team brings it to their attention. This kind of feedback can feel upsetting – especially for leaders who care about cultivating trust. In the moment that a leader is made aware of a rupture – there are four moves that will exacerbate the problem. These are important to avoid.
- Denial. Acting like it didn’t happen or waiting for it to blow over.
- Deflection. Pushing responsibility onto others. “This came from above” tells people nobody is going to own it.
- Defensiveness. Pushing back on the feedback rather than becoming curious about it.
- Dismissal. Ending the conversation before the person feels heard.
The 5 R’s of Repair
On the other hand, when leaders respond to a trust rupture with the 5 R’s – they are signaling that they take team trust seriously and are capable of repair.
- Regulate. Keep emotional reactions under control before saying anything.. If a leader is still reactive, it’ll make things worse. A phrase Kate keeps close: “this belongs.” This conversation belongs here. It’s part of the job.
- Recognize. Name out loud what happened and what it meant to the team. “I want to acknowledge that this change felt really abrupt.” That’s not admitting fault. It’s showing the impact was seen.
- Take Appropriate Responsibility. Take ownership of the parts of the issue that were within the leaders control. . “Even though I didn’t make the final decision, I can own that I should have thought through how it would land on the team.”
- Offer Reasoning. Share context the other person might be missing. “Is it okay if I share a few things you might not be aware of?” This helps the team see the thinking and complexity behind what happened without sounding defensive.
- Recommit. Say what will change going forward, and make it something that can actually be followed through on. Repair needs visible action, not just words.
What to Try This Week
- Run the CBI check on one relationship that feels off. Identify which one from competence, benevolence, or integrity broke. Just naming it changes what the next conversation looks like.
- Acknowledge one impact this week without taking responsibility for everything. Try the phrasing: “I want to acknowledge that ___ felt ___.” That’s it. No full apology required. Just showing you can see what happened.
Want the Full Set of Repair Moves?
The key takeaways from the March webinar are in a downloadable PDF on LinkedIn, including the exact language for each of the 5 R’s.
Download the key takeaways!
Repair isn’t optional. The leaders who do it well aren’t the ones who never break trust. They’re the ones who know how to stay in the room after it breaks.