What a $10,000 mistake taught me about trust

This article was written by Jeremy Giroir, Bloom Growth Coach. Learn more about him or get in touch here.

Summary

In the chaos of building a team, people hesitate to speak up, small mistakes go unaddressed, and communication fractures. But when leaders create an environment where it is safe to question, experiment, and challenge assumptions, the entire trajectory of the team changes. Psychological safety isn’t soft. It’s the operational difference between a team that hides problems and one that surfaces them early. What follows are lessons from my own journey—building teams under pressure.

INDEX

• The $10,000 slab that cost me far more than money
• What happens to a team when safety disappears
• How I changed—and what it actually required
• What this means for the people you lead

The $10,000 slab that cost me far more than money

I used to own a stone fabrication company in Austin, Texas called Elite Granite & Marble. 

Ninety percent of our work was for volume builders, but this particular job for a high-end custom home project was different. The job included a single $10,000 slab of stone, and we were still working through exactly how we wanted to use it. 

That day, our processes got out of order. The job was released to the shop before the design details were finalized. When I realized that, I walked out to the floor to tell our stone sawyer not to cut the slab, but it had already been cut.

Then it happened—I lost control. I yelled. I cursed. I sent him home. I nearly fired him on the spot. 

But the irony is that he was one of our best people. Experienced, steady, and far more seasoned in the stone industry than I was. The mistake wasn’t incompetence; it was a process gap. And ultimately, it was my failure to slow things down.

The slab cost $10,000. My reaction cost considerably more.

What happens to a team when safety disappears

In the weeks that followed, people walked on eggshells. That same sawyer, who used to move with confidence, started acting like an abused puppy dog. Problems came to me later instead of sooner. Questions were asked more cautiously. Nobody wanted to be next.

That’s what the absence of psychological safety actually looks like in practice. It’s not dramatic. It’s quiet. Silence grows, and as it does, so does your exposure to the very mistakes you’re trying to prevent. People stop bringing you problems early—and you find out about them when it’s much harder to fix them.

I had been telling my team to be bold and take risks. But telling people to be brave while reacting harshly to their mistakes sends a mixed signal. The words don’t matter if the behavior contradicts them.

How I changed—and what it actually required

After the slab incident, I started working on myself first. That’s the part leaders often skip.

“Who did this?” became “What did we miss?” Mistakes (including that one) got shared openly. We added a simple question after projects: what did we try that didn’t work, and what did we learn? Framing reflection around learning instead of blame shifted how people approached risk over time.

The pattern showed up elsewhere, too. A customer dispute over a $200 sink: I was convinced the problem wasn’t our fault. Technically, I was right. We still lost the relationship. Being right turned out to be far less valuable than preserving trust.

None of this happened overnight. Leading with curiosity instead of defensiveness is a practice, not a decision. But over time, the team brought issues forward earlier. Experimentation increased. Collaboration improved. Safety wasn’t something I declared—it was something I had to model, consistently, until it became the culture.

The missing piece at Elite Granite & Marble

What I didn’t have at Elite Granite & Marble was a structure that made these behaviors easily repeatable. Asking “what did we learn?” worked when I remembered to ask it. The Bloom Growth OS™ builds that cadence in—consistent meeting rhythms, visible priorities, and a framework that keeps teams focused on issues rather than individuals. Trust still has to be modeled by the leader. But the right structure makes it easier to sustain. It’s something I wish I had then.

What this means for the people you lead

Fast growth without psychological safety is unstable. Even highly capable people can’t perform at their best if they’re calculating the emotional cost of honesty before they speak.

Here’s what I’d suggest starting with. After your next project or tough moment, ask your team one question: What did we try that didn’t work, and what did we learn? Not who dropped the ball. That single reframe changes the temperature of a room faster than any policy will.

Beyond that, watch your own reactions more than your team’s. The leaders who build the safest teams aren’t the ones who never react badly. They’re the ones who reflect on it when they do—and change visibly enough that the team notices. That’s what earns trust. It’s also what makes it possible for people to bring you the early warning signs, the uncomfortable truths, the problems they’d otherwise carry alone until it’s too late.

I learned this the hard way. The most valuable asset in any growing organization isn’t talent alone. It’s the willingness of that talent to be fully honest with you.

The most expensive problems in any organization are the ones nobody felt safe enough to raise. Start there. When people feel safe, amazing things happen.