Cronyism in the Workplace: The Leadership Blind Spot

Workplaces are odd places when you stop and watch them. You can read every leadership book, attend every training session, and still learn the most important lessons by living through real moments, awkward meetings, and the consequences of your own decisions.

You would have heard of the term cronies. The familiar faces, the inner circle, the names that come up first, fastest, and most often. The people who get picked, trusted and promoted on repeat while everyone else waits in the hallway of maybe one day.

Cronyism is not always dark, dramatic or deliberate. It can often wear a more innocent mask. The mask of easy and of I already know them so it will be faster. The mask of let us just get the job done. And before anyone notices, the whole culture quietly reshapes itself around the same small tribe.

From Outsider to Insider and Back Again

I have seen leadership from both sides. I have been the employee sitting in a meeting wondering why the same people always got chosen, why the same voices were heard first, and why new ideas seemed to get lost before they even landed on the table. At the time I promised myself I would never lead like that.

Then I built a business, hired a team, grew that team, faced real pressure, dealt with real deadlines, and guess what? I accidentally became the exact leader I once questioned. Not because I did not care and not because I wanted to be unfair, but because I leaned on what felt safe, fast and familiar.

In my view cronyism rarely starts with a villain. It starts with convenience. It starts with trust that gets lazy. Loyalty that goes unchallenged. Hiring that values closeness over cleverness. Teams that slowly turn into echo chambers where agreement becomes more valuable than improvement.

I lived the whole arc. I built a team with cronies at the core, watched the culture wobble, saw the limits hit fast, and eventually ripped up the org chart to rebuild with thought instead of impulse.

If you have ever thought, “Let’s just use the same people again,” you’re not alone, but this chat… yeah, it’s about us.

Alright, let us unpack it. Honestly. Simply. Properly.

Here’s What We’ll Cover

• What cronyism really looks like at work
• What cronyism is not
• When cronyism is and is not corruption
• Why good leaders fall into it by accident
• The real cost to culture and people
• The early warning signs
• How to fix it without hurting trust
• How to expand opportunity fairly
• Leadership expectations
• A self check for leaders
• Related reading and FAQs

What Cronyism Actually Looks Like (It’s More Subtle Than You Think)

When most people hear the word cronyism, they imagine a caricature; deals done over cigars, promotions handed out at private dinners, blatant favouritism the whole office watches unfold. That does exist, but it’s not the strain most companies catch.

You don’t need to be corrupt to cause damage. Sometimes you just need to be tired and comfortable.

The more common version is quieter. Less dramatic. Almost respectable. It sounds like:

“Let’s just get Sam on this, she’ll know what to do.”
“Tom gets how we work, loop him in early.”
“We need this done fast, better go to the usual team.”

None of those sentences are malicious, biased, or consciously excluding anyone. They are rational decisions made under pressure. The issue isn’t the intent, it’s the repetition. When the same small group becomes the shortcut for every important task, the shortcut eventually becomes the road and everyone else becomes scenery.

Cronyism doesn’t shout “unfair!”. It whispers “efficient.” And that’s why it sticks.

What Cronyism Is Not

Cronyism is not having close work friendships. It is not trusting people who have shown they do good work. And it is not choosing reliable team members when things are hectic. That’s normal. That’s leadership. Good workplaces run on trust, teamwork, and people who can get the job done.

Cronyism only begins when the same people are chosen because they are familiar, convenient, or automatic, not because they are the best or fairest choice in that moment.

It’s not about valuing your people. It’s about forgetting to make room for everyone else.

When Cronyism Is and Is Not Corruption

Cronyism can be corruption; the kind where power is traded, favours are banked, and jobs or influence are exchanged like currency. This is the version you see in politics or big organisations where networks come with silent IOUs and decisions have price tags, even when no money changes hands.

But most workplace cronyism isn’t that dramatic. It’s not suited deals or secret handshakes in dimly lit rooms.

It’s the every day version.
The human version.
The “I know you, so you’re in” version.

And then there is the middle ground; the kind that isn’t rushed or accidental, and isn’t technically corrupt, but absolutely involves power.

When leaders hire their friends to give them a seat at the table, not because they are the best choice, but because they can, that is cronyism.

Not bribery. Not illegal. But it is influence replacing fairness.

So, I see cronyism falling into three lanes:

Cronyism Type	🟡 Convenience Cronyism	🟠 Power Cronyism	🔴 Corrupt Cronyism
Why it happens	It’s easier and faster	They can, so they do	Someone benefits privately
Driver	Pressure, habit, comfort	Influence, access, entitlement	Deals, favours, leverage
Intent	No bad intent	Not malicious, but self serving	Fully intentional
Looks like	Defaulting to the same people	Giving friends a seat at the table	Promises, swaps, IOUs
Decision mindset	“I trust them, it’s faster”	“I want them close to power”	“You help me, I help you”
Impact	Shrinks opportunity slowly	Blocks merit openly	Undermines systems directly

All three damage culture. One is tired. One is entitled. One is transactional.

Why Good Leaders Do It Without Realising

Most leaders don’t sit down and decide to play favourites. They do it when:

• Time is short
• Pressure is high
• Decisions need to be quick
• Familiar people feel safer
• Past success feels like a guarantee for future success

It looks efficient and it feels responsible. It even sounds like good leadership. But over time, convenience turns into habit, habit turns into bias, and bias quietly narrows the workplace without anyone noticing.

Most leaders engaging in cronyism do not wake up and think, Today, I shall destroy morale. They wake up tired, under pressure, and think:

I will just ask people I already know or trust. It is easier.

The Blind Spot Leaders Never See in Themselves

Cronyism rarely looks like favouritism when you’re the one doing it. It looks like:

• alignment
• cultural fit
• shared thinking
• trust
• reliability
• loyalty

All noble words. Until they turn into a VIP list instead of a talent list.

The Fine Line Between Trust, Cliques and Tribalism

Let’s make one thing clear: Building a circle of reliable people is smart leadership.
Relying only on that circle forever is organisational carbon monoxide.

It doesn’t smell. You just faint one day.

And this is where cliques slip in. In workplaces, cliques don’t always look like schoolyard drama. Sometimes they look like:

👉The same people at the same meetings
👉The same voices influencing the same decisions
👉The same group having access to information first
👉The same inner circle shaping direction, while others orbit the outside

No fights. No meanness. No bullying. Just unspoken membership rules.

The leader I said I’d never be.

When I started building my business, we grew at stupid speed. Blink and something new was happening. Orders were flooding in. Opportunities were piling up. I was in permanent overdrive.

We needed people. Fast.

So I did the thing that makes total sense when your brain is on fire. I pulled from my circle. People I knew and who knew me. People I didn’t need to second guess.

Before long, I had hired between 15 to 20 people, all from some kind of connection. Friends of friends. Friends of family. People who already understood me, my pace, my temperament, the madness of how I operated.

It wasn’t strategic. It was survival.

And if that wasn’t messy enough, I then built a ladder. And guess who ended up at the top? My favourites. My trusted ones. The people who became the managers of everyone else, not because they had leadership experience, but because they had proximity to me.

So now we had:

⚠️ A team hired for comfort, not capability
⚠️ A hierarchy built on closeness, not credibility
⚠️ Managers managing only because they were mine
⚠️ And everyone else… watching

Did it move fast? Absolutely. Was it efficient at first? Yes.
Was it fair? No. Was it healthy? Not even a little bit.

At first the business boomed. Then it plateaued & it got loud in all the wrong places🥴.

When the honeymoon ended

The people I elevated were loyal, but not always skilled in people leadership and lacked in emotional intelligence. Hard conversations weren’t had. Feedback wasn’t delivered. Performance issues and tardiness were tiptoed around. Decisions were personal before they were practical.

Cronyism also blurred professional lines, making it easier for certain people to get away with overstepping boundaries simply because they’re “inside the circle.”

Resentment climbed in quietly and then made itself very comfortable.

And the saddest part? The team told me nothing. They just adjusted their expectations downward and got on with it.

You know you’re in trouble when your team stops complaining. Complaints at least mean hope. Silence means people are done.

Eventually, the only real solution was the hardest one I’d ever had to make.

I phased the whole team out.

Not overnight. Not cruelly. But deliberately. One role, one hire, one change at a time, until the old structure was gone and a new one stood in its place.

A team hired for skill, not sentiment. Led by capability, not closeness. Built to grow, not to agree. I rebuilt with distance from comfort and respect for competence.

It was humbling. Necessary. Brilliant. Painful. Educational. And expensive, in more ways than money.

The Real Cost Nobody Measures

Cronyism doesn’t break the workplace loudly. It wears it down quietly.

The real cost includes:

• fewer new ideas
• fewer voices stepping forward
• less innovation
• less confidence
• talent shrinking back instead of stepping up
• people leaving without drama, just disappointment

It is not the arguments that kill culture. It is the quiet.

This kind of slow cultural erosion is similar to what we unpack in toxic positivity in the workplace, where issues get polished over instead of solved.

Cronyism often blocks growth because people stay stuck in belonging mode, chasing safety and approval instead of moving into confidence and potential, much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains.

Any culture issue, whether it is cronyism, favouritism or toxic positivity, also eventually fuels workplace time wasters because people stop focusing on results and start focusing on everything else.

Early Signs Every Leader Should Notice

Look for these behaviours:

• the same names are mentioned first in every planning meeting
• input becomes smaller and quieter over time
• new hires start strong, then slowly go silent
• conversations feel like confirming a plan, not shaping one
• contribution is welcomed, but rarely changes the outcome

These are signs of comfort, not fairness. Safety, not growth.

Great leaders expand capability, not convenience, which is why ideas around Tony Robbins Leadership challenge us to grow people instead of collecting familiar ones.

How to Fix It Without Breaking Trust

You do not fix cronyism by removing trust. You fix it by widening the doorway to opportunity. Try:

• rotating responsibility
• asking who else should be here?
• sharing information earlier,
• choosing curiosity over convenience

Fair does not mean removing trusted people. It means creating more trusted people.

Visibility Is Not the Same as Ability

In the current world of remote and hybrid work, the person you see most is not necessarily the person who adds the most value. Fast responses, visibility in chat, and loud digital presence can be mistaken for capability.

Good leadership looks past the obvious voices and makes space for the less visible ones.

A strong leader doesn’t notice the loudest person. A strong leader notices more people, full stop.

Cronyism thrives in rigid circles, the opposite of what Goleman Leadership Styles encourages; leaders should flex, adapt, and bring out the best in different people, not the same people.

A Quick Leadership Self Check

Ask yourself honestly:

• Do I pick people based on comfort or capability?
• Do others get a fair chance to lead, or only assist?
• Does input change outcomes, or just get acknowledged politely?
• If I step away for a few weeks, does the team grow or pause?

If these questions make you think, that’s a good sign. Awareness is leadership in action.

FAQs

Is cronyism always intentional?
No. It’s usually habit, pressure and proximity, not bad intent.

Is cronyism illegal?
Not usually. That’s what makes it so tricky. It often lives in the “unfair but not unlawful” zone.

Is hiring friends always bad?
No. Hiring only friends is.

How do I fix it without hurting relationships?
Change the process, widen the participation, not the people.

How can I tell if I’m doing it?
If the first names that come to mind are always the same, you already know.

How do you stop being accidental about it?
You audit decisions like expenses. If you can’t justify it on paper, rethink it.

Final Thoughts

Leadership isn’t about picking the same handful of people because it feels safe. It’s about growing more people so leadership itself expands.

I once promised I’d never become a leader who defaulted to familiar choices over fair ones. For a moment, I did exactly that. Not on purpose, not out of ego, but out of pressure and autopilot instinct.

In recent times, a leader said to me: “I just like working with people who think like me.” And I replied: “Great. But who’s doing the thinking differently, so the business grows?” Silence.

Growth rarely comes from the echo.

📚 Related Reading

• nepotism in the workplace
• why fraternization at work can get messy
• 20 workplace pet peeves and how to handle them
• workplace glossing: when image matters more than truth
• backbiting in the office: why it happens & what to do about it
• mockery & insults in the workplace
• malicious gossip in the workplace
• How Effective Leaders Use Transparency Without Oversharing
• Ghosted After an Interview: Why Employers Go Silent

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