Career NorthStar News - Issue 2 Professional Honesty, Transparency, & Trust

Highlights

Career NorthStar • Nov 3, 2025 • Issue 2 This week, AL discusses the essential element of what we call, here at Career NorthStar, honesty, transparency, and trust in Business Teams and Leadership. The technical term, however, is Psychological Safety. We see trust among teams and their leader to be a foundational component of successful teams. Without it, particularly when trusted information is weaponized for political gain or self-service, can destroy team morale and performance.

The core message for current and future leaders: Trust must be earned daily through action, not assumed through hierarchy or just because the boss says so. We’ve got some tips and tricks to help you when your leader is not trustworthy.

Psychological Safety: The Cost of a Weak Leader

This week we explore the critical difference between leaders who build trust and those whose actions create a climate of distrust and fear.

I had a conversation with a friend, who was having trouble with his boss. It wasn’t that the boss is mean, per se, or dumb, though he is over his head according to my friend and plays politics and bends the knee to the CEO in order to curry favor in absence of real leadership. As a result, the issue with my friend is “safety.” (this was my word not his).

His boss has a habit of asking for feedback on a topic or issue and really wants the “unvarnished” truth. So, my friend offers it. And each time he offers that truth and honesty, his boss takes that information and uses it to his advantage or political gain or judges other people, diminishing them.

My friend picked up on this over time and it came to a head last week, that he had to share it and ask for help. “He is my boss so I need to give him something but more and more I am hesitating or just saying I don’t know so that he doesn’t weaponize or use information incorrectly. But at the same time, I look bad to him because my information is incomplete because I am holding back because I know what he is and what he’ll do with it.”

We had a productive discussion and I provided some guidance to him on how to address it.

Erosion of Trust: What Bad Leadership Looks Like

Weak leaders create an environment of danger, where team members feel a loss of "safety" when offering feedback.

Signs of a Bad Leader:

• Weaponizes Information: Takes trusted, unvarnished truth and uses it for their own political gain or to diminish others.

• Acts on a Self-Serving Agenda: Operates with their own agenda that is not aligned with the team's or even the Organization’s goals.

• Twists Truth: Takes information and twists it to their own truth, often hijacking subordinate’s meetings for their own benefit.

• Hides Information: Withholds data to look smarter or make others look less capable.

• Assumes Trust: Believes an honesty bond exists because of the leadership hierarchy, even though it is not earned or reciprocated.

These behaviors cause a loop of distrust and poor performance, where individuals refuse to play that nonsense, team chemistry dissolves, and goals fade. Do you know somebody like this? Maybe you report to them today. Or maybe a good colleague does.

Building Safety: What Good Leadership Looks Like

A good leader's actions create the climate of trust and honesty day after day. This approach pays enormous dividends to the leader and the team.

Actions of a Good Leader:

• Build Trust Every Day: You have to build trust and honesty Every. Single. Day. with actions. It is not hierarchy that requires trust and transparency and honesty. It is the actions of the Leader to create the climate of trust and honesty day after day, delivered in micro-doses and at every opportunity.

• Creates a Sacred Space: Your 1:1 time or small team meeting is a "safe space" that is cultivated over time. You must be present for those discussions. Even if you aren’t feeling great at that moment, you have to give off the good, safe vibe. You, as the leader, have to do this. It will pay enormous dividends to you and the team.

• Leads as "Hub and Spoke": Lean on your team to share in the goal and the issue/opportunity and then act on some of their recommendations. See it through to come to life. Nothing builds trust and honesty better than a shared and collaborated goal(s) that is brought to life by the leader. The team will bond with you, one person at a time or as a group.

• Listens to Understand: You don't need to be happy with the truth provided, but you must Listen, Understand, Explore, Respond. Thank and truly appreciate the information and treat it accordingly. And then tell them and show them and demonstrate their words mean your action. Nope it won’t always come to fruition (and you can explain that to them because you have built trust and honesty and transparency) but when it does, the bond starts to strengthen. Then you build on that foundation of trust and honesty and transparency. Next thing you know, you have built a world-class team, all working for each other, the Organizational goal, and achieving those goals under your leadership.

Tips for Managing a Weak Leader

If you are on the receiving end of a self-serving or weak-minded leader, who takes your information and uses it for their own good or their own purpose, here are some subtle, professional, and effective tips to manage your way through it and toward success. This is all done while you maintain your safety and integrity.

Professional “Pushes”:

• Use Intentional Language: Ask for thoughts back from that leader by saying, "Hey, I have something for you and would like your honest thoughts back".

• Direct to Private Conversation: If they start to go off agenda in a meeting and take the meeting sideways, or use the moment improperly, suggest, "I hear what you are asking, may we finish our current agenda in the interest of everyone’s time? Then I would love to explore your item offline or right afterwards to make sure I am fully understanding your item. This way we can keep the agenda on what we planned and can be fully present with your item".

• Gently Request Context: After you provide whatever information your leader asked, come right back with, "I’m glad that was helpful. Can you say a bit more about where you are going with this? Perhaps I can add additional guidance with more context".

Sometimes you can’t pick your leader or circumstance. But you can certainly manage through it. I’m cheering for you! 

Got a question or a comment? Drop it in the comment section. We would love to hear from you!

- AL (Bridget and Jessica)

Coming Next

Episode Replay: Catch the replay of our 'Complex Business Problem Solver' Roundtable on YouTube and Spotify!

Career NorthStar Website: Check our website for more!