How Most Organizations are Failing their Purveyors of Trust
image by Jcomp for Freepik
I’ve made no secret of my belief: workplace trust begins with supervisors, managers, and other non-C-suite leaders—the ones closest to the team members who bring the business to life. What amazes me is how little support these key purveyors of trust receive from their organizations, let alone any higher expectations for the critical role they play. Every organization seeks a strong reputation, not only in what it produces but also in how it treats its employees. After all, nothing travels faster than a bad reputation, and distrust is usually at its core.
Yet despite a company’s aspirations for good standing, a familiar story plays out across sectors. I’ve seen it firsthand, and I’ve been a casualty of it too.
The progression of an employee’s professional life is often like a personal relationship. After a while, both parties start asking, “Where is this going?” If the answer is “nowhere” because a supervisory or managerial role (or marriage, in the case of personal relationships) isn’t on the horizon, then the conclusion is often to leave. But no one talks about the obvious: just because you think you’re ready for the next step, doesn’t mean you are.
Too often, newly promoted employees (or those seeking promotions) see managerial roles as an extension of their previous work. They assume 95% of the job is to continue to work in the business (the labor) as opposed to working on the business, which is the people whom they now lead. In fact, almost every manager I’ve known hasn’t heard of the distinction between working in the business and working on the business. This organizational silence around what effective management entails perpetuates bad managers—and, as a result, low-trust workplace cultures. This cycle hurts the reputation of new well-meaning managers who lack guidance on their role, ultimately cutting them off from future employment prospects at trust-filled companies who can suss out bad managers from a mile away.
The problem with the lack of managerial clarity doesn’t stop there. It also fuels the myth of what management is. To manage means: 1) to be in charge of, administer, run; and 2) succeed in surviving or in attaining one's aims, especially against heavy odds; cope. This is exactly how poor managers are led to believe they should lead: “by being in charge of, running, and coping with people to achieve production goals.” Trust will and can never be created in this way.
I remember my first experience as a director. I’d be leading a small team of three, and like most new managers, I had to complete a leadership assessment post-hire. It was meant to highlight my strengths and weaknesses as a leader, though to this day, the foundation of that assessment remains unclear to me. Afterward, I met with someone I’d never seen before—a complete stranger tasked with revealing my supposed leadership profile. Ironically, I was expected to trust the assessment’s validity, which my soon-to-be boss would also see. Not surprisingly, there was no plan for my future leadership development connected to that assessment. It was as if the whole exercise never happened, right after it did.
Despite this process, I assumed my new role was clear: get my team to meet their goals and meet my own in the business goals, too. There was never any discussions on how to connect, communicate, support, listen and include all the ideas of the people of my team into the running of the division. More importantly, my performance wouldn’t be measured on them either. However, the office’s trust level was so low, I eventually realized I’d need to teach myself what it meant to lead a team effectively if I wanted to preserve my own sanity. And so, I began my journey, self-taught, into authentic trust building team leadership.
What we need now, more than ever, are organizations that prioritize trust- that is clear communication, listening, support and inclusion, the true guidance for their leaders. The most successful companies know this: fostering a culture of trust starts with every level of leadership. Let’s stop expecting managers to figure it out alone and start equipping them with the skills and insights they need. Only then can we truly build workplaces where trust flows downward—and spreads horizontally in every direction.