Editorial
Trust is a universal concept that is almost ethereal. The phrase “I trust you” rolls off our tongues with meaning and yet “trust” isn’t so easy to articulate.
Trust is at the foundation of our relationships and the workplace is no exception. The popular survey items,“I trust my manager” and “I have trusting relationships at work,” are ones that have emerged as drivers of employee engagement across countless organizational surveys.
As organizations move into an increasingly disordered future, trust draws people inside the organization toward each other, creating the order needed to coordinate work and achieve organizational objectives. So what drives trust and what can leaders do to build trust with employees and combat organizational entropy?
Understand What Drives Trust
Definitions of trust abound but the research converges on similar themes.
Professors Brene Brown and James Davis both outline components of trust that strike similar chords, from Davis’ enumeration of ability, benevolence and integrity to Brown’s BRAVING model which includes themes of reliability, accountability and integrity.
In 2019, consultants Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman analyzed the results of 360-feedback assessments from 87,000 leaders and concluded that three primary factors underpin employee trust:
- Positive relationships.
- Good judgment and expertise.
- Consistency.
I often use Zenger and Folkman’s model in my own work because it comes directly from evaluations of leaders from the perspectives of their employees.
At first glance this might seem simple: first, build a good relationship. Second, demonstrate good judgment in your area of expertise. And third, do what you say you’re going to do.
And in a way, it is that simple.
But the real challenge for leaders is locking into behavior patterns that are directly observable to employees.
Related Article: How to Build a Modern, Holistic Employee Listening Strategy
Target Specific Trust-Building Behaviors
Demonstrate vulnerability. In many industries and organizational cultures, vulnerability is viewed as weakness among leaders. But from a psychological perspective, the opposite is true. Leaders are human and employees know they are human. Acting as if one is perfect or has all the answers all the time is what actually demonstrates weakness and more specifically, insecurity.
Being vulnerable is scary but it doesn’t mean airing all your dirty laundry to the world. It can be as simple as publicly acknowledging topics you aren’t an expert in, sharing a little bit about your personal life and your values when you speak to employees, or opening up about professional failures you’ve made. Paradoxically, these behaviors demonstrate self-confidence in the areas you are an expert in and lead others to perceive you as more accessible — and more human.
Balance organizational and individual benefits. At some point, every leader finds themselves needing to balance the interests of the organization and those of individual employees. And sometimes, these (appear to) conflict. In his work on trust, professor John Gottman uses the phrase “sliding door moments” to describe the little (but massively influential) opportunities people get in daily life to demonstrate that they either prioritize their own interests or the interests of another.
In the workplace, employees are well aware that leaders are stewards of the business. But what might be unclear to them is whether their leaders really care about them and their interests. If employees are questioning this, there’s likely a trust problem and that means that people who should be connecting and coordinating their efforts are moving further and further away from each other. As a leader, it is perfectly appropriate to speak about organizational benefits — efficiency, growth, margins and so on. But in these “sliding door moments,” balancing communications with the individual benefits to employees can help you build positive relationships and demonstrate your good judgment.
Be real with people. Similar to misconceptions about vulnerability, many leaders behave as if they must always frame things positively, even messages that employees may not view as positive. When this happens, employees report confusion, frustration and an overall lack of trust in their leaders. After all, if leaders communicate that “everything is great and exciting,” then in the minds of many employees, nothing is great or exciting.
Balance is key. There is nothing wrong with sharing a long-term positive outlook but sometimes the external environment or difficult decisions that must be made are exactly that: difficult. Balance acknowledging the challenges ahead for employees while maintaining realistic optimism, e.g. “this is going to be tough. But we will get through this together.”
Related Article: Why We Need to Foster Trust During Layoffs
Commit Yourself to Trust-Building Behaviors
There is no quick fix to building trust with employees.
Conference
Sep
16
HR Tech Conference Las Vegas 2025
Register
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
In nearly every definition of trust, we find themes of reliability and consistency which inherently require the passage of time. Leaders must commit themselves to engaging in these behavior patterns, stay true to their stated values and ultimately, do what they say they’re going to do…over and over and over.
In an increasingly volatile world of work, as we accelerate toward more complexity, the energy invested into building trust will be well spent. These behaviors will help to draw individuals in towards each other and over time will foster a more connected and ordered work environment that builds employees’ propensity to trust each other — fertile ground from which collaboration, engagement and innovation grow. And from there, the financial fruits of business ripen.
It’s also likely that commiting to these behaviors will become a source of personal and professional satisfaction because while trust is foundational to our relationships, relationships, in turn, are foundational to happiness and life satisfaction.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
