Trust Audit Case Study: How I Uncovered the Real Blocker in a Struggling Engineering Team
This leadership case study shows how trust, not process, was the root cause of a stuck team and how direct intervention restored momentum.
Background
A Director once challenged me to talk more about leadership. Instead of a hallway conversation, she handed me something bigger: lead a book study for all 20 to 25 of her managers, in small groups of 5 to 6.
We used The Five Dysfunctions of a Team as the framework.
At the same time, one of my Team Leads quit unexpectedly, and I stepped in to lead his team directly. Within days, I could feel something was off: the team was polite, but not aligned, not open, and not moving forward.
I needed to understand the real dynamics, not surface behavior.
The Trust Audit
I gathered the team and asked three direct questions:
- Do you trust Garmin?
- Do you trust me as your leader?
- Do you trust your teammates?
Then I followed up with 1-on-1 conversations to get honest answers.
Most people gave the same pattern:
- Yes, I trust Garmin.
- Yes, I trust you.
- Yes, except for one person.
That one person was the same name across multiple conversations, so I met with him privately.
The Breakthrough
In his 1-on-1, he told me plainly:
Not I am frustrated. Not we are misaligned. Not we need better communication. He said he did not trust the team.
That was the root cause.
This was not a performance issue. This was not a process issue. This was a trust issue: the foundational dysfunction in Lencioni's model.
Until that was addressed, nothing else would move.
The Outcome
I worked with him directly, gave him opportunities to reset, and made expectations clear. Ultimately, he was not willing to rebuild trust, so I made the call to manage him out.
Within weeks:
- The team stabilized
- Communication opened up
- Collaboration improved
- Delivery accelerated
- Morale increased
- The team regained confidence
Removing the trust blocker unlocked the entire system.
Leadership Insight
You cannot fix performance, process, or alignment until you fix trust.
Teams do not get stuck because of tools or tickets. They get stuck because of people dynamics no one wants to talk about.
A structured Trust Audit surfaces the truth quickly and gives leaders the clarity they need to act.
How This Applies to My Consulting Work
I now use this same Trust Audit approach with:
- Founders struggling with team friction
- Engineering teams stuck in conflict or silence
- New leaders unsure why their team is not moving
- Organizations where something feels off but no one can name it
It is one of the fastest ways to diagnose team dysfunction and restore momentum.