Tech Won't Save a Team That Can't Trust Each Other

I was told this a couple months ago by an incredible Chief People Officer who entrusted me with an international cohort of rising female leaders for over a year. When she reported the undeniable ROI and feedback from the year long partnership, she was told the following by her CEO:

‘We are not going to renew this support in 2026 because we are focusing on tech and product.’

Understandable but perhaps leaving a blindspot. 

When tech employees can't build trust (internally with colleagues, externally with clients) companies pay for it in ways that show up across every line of the P&L. And the bill is staggering.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Poor communication and weak interpersonal skills cost U.S. businesses an estimated $1.2 trillion annually. For a company of 500 or more employees, neglecting these so-called "soft skills" costs roughly $6.25 million per year in lost productivity, employee turnover, brand erosion, and lost business alone.

Perhaps more alarming: 57% of all project failures are directly attributed to communication breakdown... not technical complexity, not budget shortfalls, not scope. Just people failing to connect, align, and trust one another.

The Turnover Spiral

When internal trust erodes, people leave. In tech, that's an especially expensive problem. Replacing a technical employee costs between 100–150% of their annual salary. For senior leaders, that figure can reach 213%. A 100-person tech organization could hemorrhage between $660,000 and $2.6 million per year just in turnover costs.

What drives that turnover? Often, it's relational. Gallup found that more than half of employees who voluntarily quit say their organization could have prevented it. Yet 51% report that no one spoke with them about their job satisfaction in the three months before they left.

Trust isn't built in performance reviews. It's built in everyday interactions. When those interactions are shallow or transactional, people quietly disengage, and eventually walk out the door.

Failed Projects, Blown Budgets

Weak internal relationships don't just affect morale. They produce dysfunctional teams that can't execute. McKinsey research shows that large IT projects overrun costs by 45% on average, and 70% fail to deliver their intended business value. Harvard Business Review puts the average cost of underperforming teams at $15.5 million per year — while high-performing, high-trust teams achieve 20% higher sales and 30% greater profitability than their peers.

That performance gap isn't a coincidence. It's a trust gap.

What Clients See

The impact isn’t only internal. When tech employees lack the relational skills to understand client needs, navigate difficult conversations, and build genuine rapport, customers notice. Research shows that 73% of consumers will switch to a competitor after multiple poor experiences. Poor internal alignment and weak external relationships can cost companies 25–30% of potential revenue from missed and mismanaged opportunities.

Rethinking What "Technical" Really Means

The ability to build trust, ask good questions, listen actively, and maintain strong relationships isn't a personality trait... it's a professional skill. And like any skill, it can be developed with intention and investment.

Companies that treat relationship-building as optional for their technical teams aren't just missing a cultural nicety. They're absorbing a quiet, compounding tax on every project, every client, and every hire.

Why the AI Blindspot is Getting Bigger

There is a disproportionate loss of women from the workforce, and it represents one of the most significant and under leveraged productivity and profitability crises facing business today. 

Artificial Intelligence has now added a new dimension to this challenge. These growing inequities are compounding the rising cost of losing top talent, increasing lost productivity, along with our most precious resource, lost time.

The ROI of a Bigger Voice at the Table

The research tells us that building trust, deepening relationships, and demonstrating caring is currency in the age of AI, yet it’s diminishing almost as fast as AI is changing. 

The future of work (and life) depends on a balance of power. 

If I can support you or your organization in any way via High Performance Executive Coaching, speaking, or executive accelerator cohorts, I’d love to help. Let's chat!