How Senior Leaders Rebuild Trust After a Career Misstep
Executive Careers with Fexingo: VP, C-Suite, and Senior Leadership Career Strategy · 2026-06-19 · 8 min
Episode notes
Episode 61 of Executive Careers with Fexingo tackles a topic rarely discussed in senior leadership circles: rebuilding professional trust after a significant career misstep. Lucas and Luna explore the anatomy of a misstep—from a failed product launch to a public communications blunder—and lay out a concrete framework for recovery. They dissect the case of a former Fortune 500 COO who, after a regulatory lapse, spent 18 months methodically rebuilding credibility through transparent stakeholder communication, board-level repositioning, and selective external endorsements. The conversation covers the critical first 72 hours after a misstep, the difference between apology and accountability, and why many senior leaders fail by trying to outrun the story rather than owning it. Practical advice for listeners navigating their own reputation repair, with a reminder that trust restoration is a deliberate process, not an event.