Why I Start with Trust (and What Happens When You Don’t)
A tape recorder slammed onto a newsroom table taught me early on: when trust is broken, everything else cracks too. Here's what happens when you lead with it—and when you don’t.
Not long after I started at the Herald News, I heard a story about a staff meeting that took place before I arrived. The details of the meeting itself are fuzzy — and beside the point — but what happened in that room left a lasting impression.
While the publisher was speaking, a reporter pulled out a microcassette recorder, hit the red “record” button, and slammed it onto the table. Then came the line:
“Would you mind saying that again?”
The message was loud and clear: I don’t trust you to stand by your words.
That story — possibly apocryphal, possibly embellished, but widely believed — stuck with me. It was my first editorial leadership job, and I remember thinking: if this is what mistrust looks like, what does it take to build the opposite?
Trust is one of the earliest lessons humans learn. According to Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, the very first crisis we face — from birth to 18 months — is trust versus mistrust. If our caregivers are consistent and responsive, we begin to see the world as reliable. If not, we learn to brace for disappointment.
Erikson called trust the foundation of all human connections. So it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s also the foundation of healthy work relationships — and, ultimately, a healthy workplace.
When I started digging into recent studies on trust at work, I found that many were conducted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — arguably the biggest global stress test for workplace trust in recent memory.
Visier, a people analytics firm, surveyed 1,000 full-time employees in the U.S. and found that while 90% said they generally trusted their employer, the reasons for distrust were strikingly consistent among the rest:
Toxic behavior goes unchecked – 45%
Lack of truth and transparency – 43% (tied)
No follow-through on feedback – 35%
Overwork without correction – 32%
A 2021 SHRM report put it plainly:
“A lack of trust can sabotage productivity, engagement, and retention.”
And just this January, Gallup reported that employee engagement in the U.S. had fallen to its lowest level in a decade — only 31% of employees were actively engaged. That’s the same level as 2014. Even more concerning, 17% were actively disengaged.
The biggest declines were in:
Clarity of expectations – only 46% of employees know what's expected of them
Feeling cared about as a person - down to 39%
Encouragement for professional growth – just 30% felt supported
I’ve seen these dynamics firsthand — both as an employee and a leader. I’ve worked in newsrooms where trust was default… and in ones where it had to be earned every day. And that’s why, as I moved into leadership, I made a conscious decision:
Start with trust. Lead with transparency. Follow through, or don’t promise.
But here’s the challenge with that approach: leadership isn’t a solo act. You can model transparency, consistency, and follow-through, but if others in your leadership circle don’t buy in, especially those above you, trust doesn’t scale. Whether you’re in a for-profit company or a nonprofit organization, building a culture of trust requires alignment. From the boardroom to the break room, everyone has to see its value — not just in theory, but in practice.
So what do you do when they don’t?
Sometimes, you coach upward. Sometimes, you build a micro-culture of trust within your own team and let the results speak for themselves. And sometimes, you make the hard decision to leave — because being asked to lead without trust is like being asked to drive with no gas in the tank. You might coast for a while, but eventually, you're stuck.
Because when people don’t trust the words, they’ll record the receipts.
And when they do trust you? They build with you.
✍️ I’d love to hear from you:
Have you worked in a place where trust was broken, or where it made all the difference? What helped build it (or rebuild it)?
Reply here or drop a comment. Let’s compare notes.
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I write weekly about lessons from a career in journalism, leadership, and the business of trust.