How to close the trust gap between you and your team

PwC has been monitoring trust in the workplace for years, but its latest 2024 study found a larger problem trust disconnection between leaders and employees than in the past. While 86% of managers say they trust their employees, only 60% of employees feel their organizations trust their organizations. This signifies that for every 10 employees you manage, 4 doubt whether you truthfully support them.

If it sounds disturbing, you concentrate. Trust is an essential tool that may keep a company together in good times and bad. When you have a regular stream of trust throughout your company, you can see it higher levels of performance and greater creativity. Instead of playing it secure (which leads to acting small), employees take pride in being trusted enough to innovate and think beyond narrow job descriptions. With an added layer of trust, they will see the greater vision and know that their impact will likely be valued.

Unfortunately, you cannot wave a magic wand and make trust appear. Trust is not a commodity. It can’t be bought or sold. It has to be earned, and meaning you need the courage to make some changes to your leadership style to close any trust gaps between you and your team.

1. Modify your recruitment process

First, do something that seems easy but is not: take hiring seriously. The more rigorous your selection process for all positions, the easier it would be to build trust with the people you hire. It’s extremely difficult to build trust with someone who doesn’t align with your business goals or doesn’t value people. By strengthening the recruitment process, you send a signal that your team is significant, chosen and unique. This is the basis for future trust.

As a part of your revamped recruiting process, engage your team in this experience. The unknown is a big barrier to trust. Giving employees the opportunity to help make hiring decisions reduces the friction that may occur when an outsider is brought into the picture. Ask them to conduct group and individual interviews, review resumes, and participate in recruiting simulations for final candidates. Ask for their input. In the blink of an eye, you will turn a “new person” into someone invited to the team By team.

2. Invest time in building real relationships

Once you hire someone, start the relationship by building trust. Sit down and talk about your expectations. As an executive, I have learned to ask specific questions to gain trust.

• How will we cooperate?

• What does trust and respect seem like in a skilled relationship?

• What do you expect from me as your boss?

• How should we deal with inevitable differences of opinion?

By asking these questions—and really listening to the answers—you will immediately set the stage for free, authentic discussions based on mutual respect and understanding. It also makes it easier to share expectations about what they will likely be like at work.

This effort pays off down the road, especially in difficult moments. I have had to lay off team members in the past. Instead of ignoring the elephant in the room, I then all sit down together. I learn how they feel. Usually no one talks about such things. Our team can because we have strong relationships with each other, making it easier to feel the pulse and see everyone’s perspective.

3. Strengthen your leadership tendencies

All leaders can develop into higher. The sooner you recognize your tendencies or habits that make others distrust you, the sooner you can stop them. For example, is your first response to a problem to take control, micromanage, or take over? Do you hold back from sharing information because you’re stressed about scaring your team? These are comprehensible reactions, but they are going to not encourage confidence.

You may now say that you are simply “following orders” or that the hierarchy in your company is combative and orderly. This is not unusual, although it is very old-fashioned. However, by keeping people in the dark, you create fear and inadvertently minimize people’s potential contributions. Conversely, when you trust your team with the truth, you open the door to higher communication and: high work culture. And you can do this no matter what your company does, at least to some extent.

4. Use technology to develop – not destroy – trust

The latest technological tools can each fuel and erode trust. It all comes down to how, when and why you introduce and use them. For example, I like to recommend talking to your team before introducing any latest technology. When you talk about it first, you’re not only unilaterally forcing your team to use technology they might not find useful. Ideally, technology should simplify everyone’s work experience, not make their lives tougher.

What about monitoring software? It’s a losing battle. When you monitor people, you say, “I don’t trust you” and “I care more about time than results.” Your employees won’t prefer it and may even find loopholes to trick your monitoring system. I know someone who works remotely who put a mouse in his pocket and got things done. The mouse moved as if it were at the desk, and her bosses never discovered about it. Ingenious. If she was doing her job, why should she be monitored like a child? Ultimately, all of it comes down to trusting your team members and giving them the space to do their job as expected.

5. Rethink your assumptions about people

You cannot do the whole lot. Nobody can. You have to count on others, and meaning you have to value and trust your employees. There’s nothing mistaken with it if you don’t trust them to care for your kids while you go on a date. However, you must trust them that, after being fully trained, they will likely be pleased with their work and do it well. Where to start? Try to delegate responsibilities to your team.

During one of our workshops, a participant realized that she was too “in the weeds” and didn’t have time to lead. When she returned to work, she invited her small team to a meeting. She said: “These are things that need to be done. I want you to work out how to accomplish all this. Let me know what you need from me.” Within a few hours, they divided the work between them based on their talents and preferences. From that time on the whole lot went easily. The leader was surprised (and relieved) how well the experiment worked.

You may trust your team, but if you don’t filter your actions through a trust filter, you’re likely missing out on big opportunities to build trust. By changing a few leadership strategies, you can reveal your unwavering trust, which is able to help clear the way for it to be reciprocated.