The “Truth Gap” at the Top

If you’re the CEO and everything sounds “fine,” the reality is you’re already late. In my years as a leader and coaching leaders, I’ve seen how the more authority you gain as a leader, the less likely people are to tell you uncomfortable truths. Most leaders think this is simply an information problem, but it’s not. What you have is a truth problem, and the distance between leadership and what’s actually happening is growing. 

I’ve taken my years of experience as a leader, both in the boardroom and the battlefield, and created a guide to show you why honest feedback disappears as authority rises and one weekly ritual that restores candor. 

Why Truth Disappears as Authority Increases

Many leaders often make the mistake of thinking that “silence” from their team means that everything is good. But in truth, there are problems or concerns, but you’re just not hearing them because of hierarchy. Why does this happen? It can happen because of a multitude of reasons, from fear of consequences to a desire to please leadership. Leading with fear might feel like you’re leading problem-free, but actually, the problems are growing, and you’ll only learn about them when they’re large and costly. In 2026, a good leader will demonstrate care for their team and avoid fear-based leadership. In my coaching, I always remind leaders that a strong leader builds people up and helps “bring out the best” in themselves by identifying each person’s strengths and assigning roles accordingly.  

This means listening to concerns, helping wherever you can, and treating people with kindness even when they have made an error. Often, leaders will unknowingly encourage filtered communication, which can be a problem as leadership is now making decisions without the full picture. 

The Cost of the Truth Gap

This truth gap can have costly consequences if left to grow for too long. The highest cost of this gap is reduced trust, which can snowball into other problems. During my time as a war officer in the Gulf War, trust was something that was critical to the success of my missions. How can I expect my team to put their lives on the line if they don’t trust me? The same can be said for the office.  

When there is a breakdown in trust, problem-solving becomes delayed as team members rely on you to make the final decision. A lack of trust can result in slower execution because team members do not feel confident in their own skills and abilities to carry out decisions, and as a result, accountability gets lost. 

The Three Warning Signals

These problems don’t just appear out of nowhere. There are some warning signs leaders can pay attention to:  

Lack of debate 

If you’re finding that meetings are feeling too smooth, that’s a problem. I’m not saying your team needs to be fighting with each other. When meetings feel too smooth, this often means that team members are simply unanimously agreeing to a strategy without voicing their concerns. A strong leader will know the value in making people feel like they’re heard and encourage open and constructive dialogue.  

Problems arrive late 

When there is a truth gap, you’ll find that problems only tend to surface when urgent. If you’ve created an environment where team members feel afraid or uncomfortable delivering hard truths, teams will wait too long to escalate issues. Part of being a strong leader in 2026 is knowing the importance of communication. 

Leaders need to be master communicators who need to be able to speak truthfully and clearly about their goals. This means emphasizing two-way dialogue and making sure your team members feel heard. 

Informal channels hold more information 

Are you learning more in the hallways than in the boardroom? This means that informal channels carry more truth than official meetings. Team members are afraid to speak up and would rather share their concerns and problems in side conversations than in the real information network. In real life, this might mean CEOs learn important operational concerns during site visits rather than leadership meetings. 

Why Leaders Accidentally Create the Truth Gap

I’ve learned that many leaders don’t even realize they’re creating a truth gap in the first place. Things like reacting defensively to bad news, punishing the messengers, over-talking, and always having the answer are some ways that leaders grow the truth gap. Strong leaders will embrace mistakes and concerns as tools for improvement. When something goes wrong, you should immediately own up to it, accept responsibility, and fix it. One of the most important traits a leader can have is humility. Throughout my career, this is something that I’ve always strived to maintain. I like to remind myself to  “remember my roots on the farm in Montana… This keeps me grounded.” I think a lot of leaders forget that humility in the workplace means being transparent about their weaknesses and learning gaps. Arrogance breeds fear, and failure follows that. 

When your team sees that mistakes aren’t something to hide, problems get solved faster and can be avoided in the future. Many leaders think that immediately explaining away concerns or always having the answer will prevent problems, but this only allows those concerns to grow until they become big issues you cannot avoid. 

The Weekly Ritual That Restores Candor

If you have created a truth gap unknowingly, there is still time to turn things around, and that involves using a weekly candor check-in. This weekly ritual involves structured conversations where feedback is encouraged rather than dreaded. 

The first step is for leaders to listen. Hold a meeting where you encourage team members to share their concerns and ask them for suggestions on any changes you need to make to make it easier to work with you. Other questions you can ask include: 

• What is concerning you the most? 

• What could hurt us next quarter? 

• What concerns you the most? 

• What can I do to ease your concerns? 

During this step, it’s critical that you listen. Now is not the time to get defensive. You’ve asked your team to speak truthfully, and sometimes that means receiving difficult feedback. Don’t forget to thank people for sharing their concerns, as this encourages the behavior in the future. Remember, you want your people to feel heard.  

Once you’ve heard the concerns, it’s important that you do something about them and demonstrate to the team that feedback does lead to action. Doing this will encourage teams to surface problems immediately because they have trust that their leader has their back and will help them solve the issue.  

Conclusion 

If there is one thing I always remind my leaders, it is that leadership is not about always having the answers. True leadership in 2026 is about creating the right conditions in which your people are willing to tell you what you need to hear, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it is. If you’ve created an environment with a truth gap at the top, that silence you’re hearing is not that the truth has disappeared but rather that it has been filtered and will eventually emerge later as a bigger issue. Remember, the higher you rise in authority, the harder you’ll need to work for the truth.