Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways
- Trust grows when leaders show up, stay present and invite tough questions.
- Transparency and consistent communication build credibility during times of uncertainty and change.
- Leaders earn trust by living their values and empowering teams with real ownership.
After an eight-hour overnight flight from Montreal to Berlin, I was fried. But checking into my hotel could wait. Instead, I hopped a cab to our company’s local office, where I did an unfiltered Q&A with the team. “Ask me anything.”
To be clear, I’m not a martyr. I was trying to build trust by showing that face time with the team is a priority. So there I stood — raw, red-eyed and willing to answer any question they threw at me.
We’re in an era of tremendous change, and any leader who wants people to follow them needs trust. Building it enables your company to make big moves like transforming the business or embracing AI — at speed. Trust also helps you to inspire teams, retain talent and make tough decisions. But ironically, less than half of workers trust their senior leaders.
No wonder. While companies rake in record profits, even the most successful ones are slashing headcounts. The DEI rollback is another trust-buster. When a company abandons its values because the political winds changed, maybe it never had any to begin with.
Two years ago, I returned to the helm of the company I founded and started steering it through a significant shift in market focus. I’ve tried to build trust, and along the way I’ve learned that these five things can make a difference.
Sign up for How Success Happens and learn from well-known business leaders and celebrities, uncovering the shifts, strategies and lessons that powered their rise. Get it in your inbox.
1. Show up and be truly present
From Berlin, I continued a whirlwind tour of our offices with stops and live Q&As in Tbilisi, Yerevan, Paris and London. Those visits were part of a larger effort to build trust simply by showing up and being mentally and emotionally present.
There are lots of examples of this in the business world, but the one that sticks with me is actually Jane Goodall. I was lucky enough to meet and work with Jane when she was already a legend. But she didn’t distinguish between celebrities and regular people. She gave her complete attention to whoever she was talking to, making them feel like the most interesting and important person in the world.
That’s the goal for me, too. Whether a meeting is IRL or virtual, I try to avoid distractions and be fully engaged. I rarely cancel or arrive late, and I aim to be reachable. At every level of the company, I hope team members feel comfortable Slacking me. Leaders need to set that kind of example. If the CEO is late, distracted or absent, everyone else will view it as permission to do the same.
By truly showing up, a leader can make a big impact. For more than half of employees who say they’re thriving, approachable senior leadership is a key factor.
2. Embrace the not-so-sunny reality
It’s hard to trust when you feel like important information is being kept from you.
I regularly share our plan to transform the business, along with goals and milestones, so everyone can see we’re sticking to it. Those updates often recognize and celebrate people, but I’m also honest about where we’re falling short.
Honesty should be a two-way street. During my office visits and at every company town hall, employees can ask whatever they like. Seeing me answer tough questions makes a difference. After I started doing unfiltered Q&As early last year, employee engagement rose 5% in Q2, even as the business navigated a challenging transition.
But being honest once isn’t enough. Transparency requires a commitment to the long game. Early in my career, I worried about hammering home the same mantra over and over again. But transparency starts with consistent and frequent messaging.
As former Google CFO Patrick Pichette often reminded me, “Repetition never spoiled the prayer.”
3. Remember, 1:1s are everything
The 1:1 is arguably a leader’s most powerful tool for building trust. Employees who regularly meet with their manager are almost three times more likely to be engaged. Ideally, they should also come away from a 1:1 feeling like they have wings. No longer weighed down by administrative obstacles and uncertainty about how to proceed, but fueled by the momentum to get things done.
This applies even when the discussions are hard ones. Challenges and even failures are part of any good business. Talking about them head-on is essential. While a leader should hold someone accountable for a problem, they should also be part of the solution. When two people with different perspectives put their heads together, they can find answers that might elude them individually.
To ensure these meetings translate into progress, I always work from a clear agenda and conclude with concrete next steps. When a team member leaves with a specific action plan and the necessary approvals, they feel empowered rather than disciplined.
Sign up for the Money Makers newsletter to get weekly, expert-backed tips to help you earn more money — from real people who founded and scaled successful businesses. Get it in your inbox.
4. Prioritize your values
At the end of the day, how can employees trust a company and its leaders if they’re quick to abandon core values when it’s expedient? Flip-flopping on issues like DEI sends a worrying signal to employees and only calls your trustworthiness into question.
Whatever your company’s particular set of values, employees opted into your mission in large part because of them. Promising one thing and doing another risks alienating the people who helped build your organization. So if you have a list of values somewhere on your website, make sure they show up in every aspect of the business.
Since I launched my business two decades ago, diversity and inclusion have been part of our DNA, and we’ve never wavered in our commitment to those principles. Staying true to our values includes enabling people to bring their authentic selves to work. For us, that isn’t lip service: roughly 85% of our employees feel confident doing so.
5. Trust people back by letting go
If you ask for trust, you must be willing to give it. For a leader, letting go of control can feel uncomfortable, but in my experience, it’s one of the most effective ways to build a culture of trust.
I grant my team lots of ownership over projects and permission to fail. In the tech sector, where we operate, broad autonomy and constant iteration are crucial to getting things done. But it’s a fine balance, I admit. Trust doesn’t mean abdicating responsibility and stepping out of the picture. The person or team is accountable for results, but as their leader, I’m ultimately responsible for whatever happens.
So I’m there to offer support. If they stumble, I need to own that myself, too. When they hit it out of the park, I want them in the spotlight.
Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose, especially during this period of disruption and uncertainty. Now more than ever, leaders must work hard to win it.
Key Takeaways
- Trust grows when leaders show up, stay present and invite tough questions.
- Transparency and consistent communication build credibility during times of uncertainty and change.
- Leaders earn trust by living their values and empowering teams with real ownership.
After an eight-hour overnight flight from Montreal to Berlin, I was fried. But checking into my hotel could wait. Instead, I hopped a cab to our company’s local office, where I did an unfiltered Q&A with the team. “Ask me anything.”
To be clear, I’m not a martyr. I was trying to build trust by showing that face time with the team is a priority. So there I stood — raw, red-eyed and willing to answer any question they threw at me.
