“I don’t understand how our CEO is so disconnected from what we do.”
It’s a quiet sentence, rarely said directly, but almost always shared — in break rooms, inside chats, in after-hours texts between employees who still care. In large organizations, this sentence signals a deeper fracture: not just disconnection, but the slow erosion of trust.
What makes this erosion so dangerous is that it’s often invisible to those at the top. CEOs don’t typically set out to lose connection with their people. In fact, many are highly invested, relentlessly working, and deeply committed to the company’s purpose. But they’re often operating within a system that filters the truth — a system that quietly protects them from hearing what they most need to know.
That system begins with the inner circle. The direct reports around a CEO are often selected for trust and consistency — and understandably so. But that trust can morph into loyalty that blinds. These senior leaders may stop challenging the CEO’s ideas. They begin managing up more than leading down. They smooth over issues, offer data without emotion, and prioritize harmony over honesty. These aren’t bad people. They’re acting out a natural human instinct: protect your role, your proximity, and your perceived alignment.
Below them, the next layer of leadership observes this behavior and takes their cues. Instead of being a conduit for clarity, they become translators — interpreting the CEO’s intent through their own lens. Some act in good faith but lack context. Others prioritize their own agendas. Either way, the further the message travels, the more distorted it becomes. The result is an organization where strategy is delivered, but belief isn’t shared. Where initiatives are announced, but adoption lags. Where people nod publicly and disengage privately.
At the bottom of the organization — the frontline teams who make or break the customer experience — confusion, skepticism, and fatigue take hold. They see inconsistency. They feel unseen. They know something is off, but have no safe mechanism to say so. And over time, they stop trying.
What holds this structure in place is something even harder to identify: overly thick belief boundaries. These are the mental defenses that executives build around what they already believe to be true. Belief boundaries are not inherently bad. They help us act with conviction, stay focused, and maintain direction. But when they grow too thick — reinforced by title, success, or filtered feedback — they become dangerous. They prevent learning. They prevent listening. They convince a leader that alignment exists when, in fact, it’s decaying.
This is how a CEO — well-intentioned and hardworking — becomes the last to know what’s really happening. Not because they failed. But because no one around them told the truth. And no one beneath them felt it was safe to.
Rebuilding trust in this environment requires more than a shift in messaging. It demands a shift in behavior — not just from the CEO, but from the entire leadership system. The first step is acknowledgment. A leader must say what’s true: “We’ve made decisions too far from where the work actually happens. That’s on us.” This isn’t weakness. It’s leadership. It invites honesty back into the system.
From there, the process is less about action plans and more about behavioral consistency. One promise kept, publicly. One channel for unfiltered feedback, maintained with discipline. One leadership development system that reinforces behaviors aligned with values — not just results. It takes time. It takes humility. And it takes the courage to dismantle the belief boundaries that once made leadership feel clear but have now made it dangerously insulated.
The greatest risk to any large organization isn’t a bad quarter or a failed initiative. It’s a CEO who believes they are connected because the system around them never allowed them to feel otherwise.
So if you’re a CEO, don’t just ask if you’re disconnected. Ask how many layers of unchallenged belief exist between you and the truth. And then ask — not for answers — but for honest conversation.
Because trust doesn’t come back when people hear the right message.
It comes back when they see a different behavior.
References
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Edmondson, A. (2018). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Harvard Business Review Press.
- Gallup. (2023). State of the Global Workplace Report. Retrieved from gallup.com.
- Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Jossey-Bass.
- McKinsey & Company. (2020). The Boss Factor: Making the World a Better Place Through Workplace Relationships.
- Zak, P. (2017). The Neuroscience of Trust. Harvard Business Review, January–February issue.
