When Leaders Clash: Restoring Trust at the Top
In every organization I advise, whether mid-market companies, universities, or foundations, I observe how the C-suite handles conflict as one indicator of their performance as a team.
Conflict between leaders is normal. It’s essentially friction, and friction can be productive. Debating the merits of different strategies can lead to better decisions and help the team understand the pros and cons of each approach.
But unresolved conflict among senior leaders is one of the costliest, least visible threats to performance. This tension generally emanates from:
- Power struggles over who controls or receives credit for a body of work.
- Different values around acceptable behavior.
- Competing priorities generally manifested through budget allocation.
- Strategic differences over what approach the organization should take to reach its goals.
- Misunderstandings or disagreements on why decisions were made or people were selected for roles.
This leads to stalled initiatives, quiet turnover of top performers, and cultures where teams learn to route around dysfunction rather than confront it. Left unaddressed, it erodes productivity, profitability, and progress.
What are the norms around conflict in your organization?
Leadership behaviors around conflict include avoiding it, focusing on competition (I win!), settling for mediocre compromise solutions, or accommodating others to keep the peace.1 That may work for low-stakes issues, but in the C-suite, it’s a recipe for organizational failure, and can negatively affect employees, shareholders, customers and suppliers.
Certain leadership teams share a norm that once a decision is made, the team supports it. In reality, some leave the room sulking and disagreeing about the topic or the individual. Whether they’re “right or wrong” matters less than how they handle it. Withholding cooperation or excessive aggression signals unresolved conflict.
While it’s often helpful to step back momentarily from the intensity of conflict, the old adage “time heals all wounds” isn’t true. It simply provides distance, sometimes to the point that the parties no longer recall what the dispute was about, only that it still exists and stings. Time can, however, offer added perspective once parties are ready to seek resolution.
The CEO isn’t responsible for each leader’s individual behavior, but she/he must hold them accountable, for the good of the organization and their colleagues. Ultimately, the CEO is responsible for ensuring the leadership team behaves within established cultural norms and may need to mediate conflicts or engage a third party to do so.
Finding the motivation to restore trust
The value of constructive, collaborative relationships between leaders is significant. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model1 highlights collaboration as a combination of high assertiveness and high cooperation, the place where both parties get what they need. But both parties must be motivated to do the work.
Motivation, or “what’s in it for me” may include leaders…
- Wanting others to view them as good, forgiving and noble.
- Viewing themselves as good, forgiving and better than the person they’re in conflict with.
- Gaining a specific need or want from the business relationship.
- Honoring values around how they should behave.
Restoring trust may require repair (addressing the specific issue where the conflict began) or rebuilding (addressing the full relationship). Both take time to develop, yet trust can be broken quickly.
Keys to restoring trust
The keys to restoring trust and resolving conflict are to better understand…
- Each person’s priorities, leadership style and how they build trust.
- Formative experiences and different interests that may drive behaviors and emotions.
- Their perception of the conflict and how it impacts the organization.
- What they reasonably need to repair or rebuild the relationship.
Restoring trust after conflict isn’t about eliminating disagreement, it’s about ensuring friction sharpens decisions rather than fractures relationships. Leaders who do this well name the norms, hold their teams accountable, and take time to understand what each party needs to repair or rebuild. That discipline pays off in retention, execution, and stakeholder confidence.
If conflict on your leadership team, board, or in a founder transition is quietly costing you momentum, a confidential conversation is often the best first step. I help boards, executive teams, and founders diagnose friction and build a customized path to restoring trust. Fill out the form below to reach me to start the conversation.
- Bite Size Learning. (n.d.). Thomas-Kilmann conflict model: 5 conflict resolution styles. https://www.bitesizelearning.co.uk/resources/thomas-kilmann-conflict-model
Copyright 2026 Priscilla Archangel.
Image by wildpixel from iStock.
Want more leadership tips read past leadership articles or check out the book LeaderVantage.
Fill out the form below to contact Priscilla if you need help in restoring the trust of your team.
