The Fastest Way to Lose Credibility as a Leader

Anyone who’s led a team has lived through this moment: you walk into a meeting thinking it will be straightforward, and then someone asks the question—usually the one that touches a nerve or exposes uncertainty. You can almost feel the room tilt in your direction.

I watched this play out recently during a company town hall. People were still processing a restructuring, and emotions were running high. Someone asked, “What does this mean for our roles?” The leader on stage gave a vague, roundabout answer that didn’t touch the heart of the question. You could sense the shift immediately. Heads down. People whispering. Trust slipping away.

Dodging isn’t subtle. People catch it in seconds.

Why Avoiding Tough Questions Backfires

First, it comes across as dismissive—even if you don’t mean it that way. Employees want clarity, not corporate fog. When leaders dance around a question, it feels like they’re either hiding something or don’t respect the audience enough to be upfront.

Second, when information is unclear, people fill in the blanks on their own. And those “blanks” spread faster than any official announcement. I’ve seen whole teams spin up stories simply because no one addressed the original question directly.

And once trust takes a hit, every message after that has to work twice as hard.

What Strong Leaders Do Differently

The best leaders I’ve worked with don’t pretend to have every answer. What they do have is steadiness. They take a short pause, acknowledge the question, and then answer as directly as they can—no jargon, no deflection.

Preparation helps. Before high-stakes meetings, they sketch out the topics they hope won’t be asked and think through how they’d respond anyway.

They’re also comfortable saying, “I don’t know yet.” When said with intention—along with when an update will come—it lands far better than a polished non-answer.

Explaining the reasoning behind decisions also goes a long way. People can accept tough news if they understand the “why,” not just the headline.

Simple Habits That Build Credibility

A short list of the three hardest questions you might face. Prepare.

• Plain language, always.
• A follow-up note after the meeting to fill any gaps.
  

  At the End of the Day

  Tough questions aren’t a threat—they’re a sign that people care. Leaders who meet them head-on, even imperfectly, earn more trust than those who try to tiptoe around them.

  Clarity beats polish. Honesty beats perfection. And in leadership, a single straight answer can carry a lot more weight than a hundred smooth ones.

  Which is why soft skills matter. Reach out to us as your guide to leadership soft skills training in Singapore. We do work in Better Conversation Skills Singapore, Communication Skills Training Singapore, Influence Skills Training and Leadership Training Workshop — all designed to help leaders thrive in the real moments that matter.