“Are you my friend? Are we locked in?” - Kendrick Lamar

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SUMMARY: In today’s increasingly distrustful workplaces, the gap between leaders and employees is widening, fueled by misunderstandings around productivity, well-being, and inclusion. To rebuild trust, reconnect teams, and foster thriving, high-trust organizations, we must first understand the critical dimensions of distrust.

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We Still Don’t Trust You

As a leadership researcher, I’ve come to realize something unsettling: I trust strangers more than I trust leaders. On any given day, I am one of the 4.6 million people who would sooner step into a stranger's car than allow myself to be “managed” by someone whose motives I mistrust. And I know I’m not alone. According to Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer, a staggering 1 in 5 people globally don’t trust their employer. The air between leadership and employees is thick with skepticism.

This trust gap isn’t just a symptom of modern workplace dynamics—it’s an existential threat to organizations. PwC’s Trust Survey found that 95% of leaders believe it’s their responsibility to cultivate trust within their teams, yet only 60% of employees feel "highly" trusted. The disconnect is undeniable. And the fallout? Personal. Profound. Productivity and engagement are decaying under the weight of this growing divide. Harvard Business Review reports that employees in high-trust environments experience 74% less stress, 106% more energy, 50% greater productivity, and 76% more engagement than their counterparts in low-trust organizations.

What’s at stake isn’t just numbers—it’s the well-being of every person in the organization.

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An Embarrassingly Simple Solution

Australian scientist Bill Mollison, famed for his development of permaculture, offered a quote that has always stayed with me:

“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”

When we talk about trust in the workplace, we’re often bogged down by complexity—endless frameworks and theories that promise the answer. But the truth is simpler than that.

The solution is intentional reconnection. To close the trust gap, we must first acknowledge its dimensions, recognize the fractures, and then begin the slow, steady work of repair.

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The Dimensions Of Distrust

• The Productivity Gap: A global survey by Workhuman, involving over 3,000 full-time employees, exposed a painful irony: half of managers believe their teams are engaging in “fauxductivity”—pretending to be busy. Yet 40% of the managers surveyed admitted they, too, are faking it. (Although 70% of employees insist they are giving their best.) The facade of productivity runs both ways, driven by a mutual distrust that neither side is pulling its weight.
• The Well-Being Gap: Deloitte’s 2023 Well-Being at Work survey illuminates another rift: 71% of employees feel supported by their peers, yet only 56% believe their company’s leadership genuinely cares about their well-being. Meanwhile, 91% of executives believe they are doing enough to show they care. This gap isn’t just frustrating—it’s a slow bleed on morale and retention.
• The Sustainability Gap: As our world grapples with sustainability, employees are calling for more than just corporate pledges. According to Deloitte, 71% of employees expect their company to advance human sustainability. And yet, while 82% of CEOs believe they’re making strides, only 56% of workers agree. It’s a dissonance that echoes louder with each passing year.
• The Remote Work Gap: Remote work was once a beacon of hope for employees, offering flexibility and autonomy. But Bamboo HR’s recent findings reveal a harsh truth: 88% of remote workers feel the need to prove they are working, and only 12% of leaders believe their teams are truly productive from afar. The trust we place in the tools of productivity has become a substitute for trusting the people themselves.
• The Belonging Gap: Inclusion is the foundation for thriving teams. Yet, according to Ciphr, while 77% of leaders believe they are fostering an inclusive environment, only 60% of non-management staff feel the same. Perhaps most telling of all, 70% of employees feel their voices are not truly heard at work. The belief that we belong is slipping away, and with it, the glue that binds us as teams.

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Tempted To Distrust

I’ll be honest: I’ve been there, standing at the edge of distrust, teetering on the brink of dehumanization. Earlier this year, I was dealing with a chronically underperforming employee (and friend)—let’s call him Ray. His missed deadlines, lack of attention to detail, and cascading mistakes drove me to the edge. I dreaded our one-on-ones and felt myself withdrawing, disengaging from him as a person, seeing him only as a problem to solve.

I was tempted by the dark side of leadership—the urge to dissociate, to see Ray not as a human but as a hindrance. And yet, in a moment of clarity, I snapped back. I realized I was becoming part of the 94% of leaders who are finding it harder and harder to build trust with their employees.

Abbey Lewis, writing for Harvard Business Review, reminds us of the fundamental behaviors that build trust:

• Share information openly and candidly. Keep the team updated on what’s going on in the company and at the senior leadership level. Don’t withhold resources from employees or make decisions in secret.
• Provide regular feedback. Be clear about the team vision and expectations of team members. Share how employees are tracking toward their performance—both positively and constructively.
• Encourage open communication. Create an environment where employees feel comfortable speaking up and voicing their opinions—even if those opinions differ from leadership. Leaders can follow formal processes, such as anonymous surveys, as well as informal processes, such as asking employees for their thoughts on a workplace topic at regular check-in meetings.
• Start with self-awareness. Leaders become more authentic when they begin with knowing who they are—what they value, what they’re good at, how emotionally intelligent they are—and how others perceive them.
• Show vulnerability. When leaders reveal their trip-ups and failures, they are seen as more approachable and less arrogant[4], but showing vulnerability isn’t always easy. Start by sharing lessons from past mistakes or areas of development.
• Embrace the journey. The path to authenticity can be tricky. Nevertheless, the answer is not in pushing away difficult emotions or situations that might arise, but in embracing the ups and downs. And, above all, learning from them and sharing those learnings with team members.
• Follow through on commitments. To be reliable, leaders must ensure their actions line up with their words. Employees will quickly lose faith in a leader if they can’t rely on the leader to do as they say.
• Establish expertise. Employees don’t expect their leaders to know everything, but they do need to hold a certain level of confidence in their leaders’ capabilities. To build their confidence, root ideas in sound evidence, suggest industry best practices, and share trends, insights, and resources relevant to the team’s function.
• Demonstrate integrity and fairness. All team members should be able to rely on their leaders for fair treatment, especially when it comes to growth opportunities. Provide all team members with learning experiences so they can develop their skillsets, whether through projects, training programs, or other roles in the organization.

Thankfully, I course-corrected. In our final one-on-one, I scrapped the agenda. I asked him, simply, “What’s really going on?” That shift—away from performance metrics and toward personal connection—changed everything. Ray slowly opened up about the personal pressures that had been weighing him down. It was a humbling reminder: Ray wasn’t just an employee. He was a father, a husband, a son, a human being struggling under the weight of life.

Together, we crafted an exit strategy that allowed him to leave the company with dignity and rebuild his life. In that conversation, we rehumanized the process. We bridged the trust gap, if only for a moment.

Get Back In Touch

If we are to repair the widening fissure between "us" and "them," we must start by rehumanizing one another. Leaders and employees aren’t separate entities—we are people, striving toward shared goals. The truth is, when people thrive, organizations thrive. It’s that simple. Trust me.