C-suite drama was on full display at the Jumbotron of a recent Coldplay concert—highlighting the uphill battle facing HR of maintaining employee trust in leadership.
At this point, few people haven’t seen the viral video that caught Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, a married CEO and his chief people officer, in an embrace. It wasn’t just a moment of embarrassment. Apart from the personal reverberations, the $1-billion tech company Astronomer launched a formal investigation, and Byron went on to resign from his post as the head of the company.
The incident spread like wildfire throughout HR circles, with many leaders highlighting how it has put a needed spotlight on pervasive issues facing the function.
“This one isn’t just a headline—it’s a mirror,” Perceptyx Chief People Officer Lisa Sterling wrote on LinkedIn. “A reflection of the exact tension so many HR leaders face every day.”
Sterling wrote that HR professionals are often faced with dichotomies: “Do I do what’s expected, or do I do what’s right? Do I protect power, or protect people?”
While HR isn’t necessarily “broken,” she says, it can at times be “complicit”—when HR professionals stay silent, protect leaders or fail to challenge. “We pay for it with broken trust, shattered teams and people who never feel safe again at work.”
Mistrust of the HR function itself was on display as the scandal erupted.
One X user wrote, “The Coldplay incident confirmed what most of us already knew: You can never trust HR.” The post received nearly 3 million views and 90,000 “likes.”
“Leaders are always held to a higher standard than individual contributors,” says Ryne Sherman, chief science officer at Hogan Assessment Systems.
Sherman says workforces expect that leaders will uphold values and display exemplary moral character—even when no one is watching. When their behaviors don’t align with organizational values, it can send the message that those values aren’t important, which will have a trickle-down effect on culture.
“When leaders fail to meet expectations,” he says, “it is far more catastrophic than when an individual contributor does the same.”
A proactive approach to bridging the gaps
This perception, however, puts leaders on a pedestal, Sherman notes, causing employees to “forget that they are real people, with real problems too.”
“One way to close the gap between leaders and individual contributors is to spend time together, working on projects together,” Sherman advises. “Leaders who get to know their employees and employees who get to know their leaders will see each other the way they see themselves: as human.”
Apart from facilitating those connections, HR can also be influential in advancing leaders who are in genuine alignment with organizational values, including through comprehensive vetting strategies and scientifically backed personality assessments, Sherman says.
Sterling emphasized that the HR function cannot be neutral or “opt out” when it comes to leaders’ behavior.
“We sure as hell don’t get to claim ‘people first’ while turning a blind eye,” she wrote.
Leaders, particularly those in HR, are accountable for the “cultures you shape, the leaders you enable and the behaviors you excuse.”
She urged HR to “change the narrative” in the wake of the kiss cam scandal, “not with statements, but with action. Not with whisper campaigns, but with bold leadership. We’re not just shaping companies. We’re shaping people’s lives. Let’s start acting like it.”
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