Few things are as costly to a leader’s ability to influence others as making promises they fail to keep.

When I meet with client teams, I frequently hear about how employees are frustrated with management’s lack of follow-through. When leaders fail to keep promises to their teams, employees are left feeling defeated, unimportant and disrespected. Even worse, employees lose trust and respect for management, believing little of what is said.

Consequences for failed follow-through run deep throughout organizations and can affect morale, employee engagement and respect. How can anyone get an employee to follow their lead if they are considered flaky and undependable?

A global survey found that over a quarter of employees do not trust their company leadership. But ironically enough, authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner wrote in The Leadership Challenge that integrity is the most sought-after and admired characteristic of all in leaders. If integrity is considered the No. 1 trait to have — yet a significant number of employees surveyed feel as though it’s missing in their leadership — why the disconnect?

Day-to-day failure to follow through is costing managers long-term credibility with their employees. While managers may feel as though they can be counted on to support employees on significant issues, they discount how those little breaks in trust can add up.

For instance, when a manager schedules a meeting with an employee and fails to show up, tolerates interruptions or reschedules at the last minute, the employee feels disrespected and undervalued. When managers listen to employee suggestions and ideas but fail to follow through with any update or decision, employees are discouraged and less likely to engage in the future. When managers break their promises, employees perceive themselves to be lied to, undervalued and unimportant.

Any manager at any level can lose valuable trust and credibility when failing to follow through on even one commitment. What’s worse is that employees begin to disconnect from the organization and believe they are not vital to its success. The American Psychological Association (APA) surveyed over 1,000 American employees and determined the support of a manager makes or breaks their overall employment experience. Almost 50% of the employees who believed they lacked supervisory support admitted they intend to leave their jobs within the next year.