The trust equation most managers get backwards: 4 ways to boost trust in your team

Trust is the building block of all relationships, be it personal or professional.

At work, this is especially important as it plays an essential role in building strong and collaborative teams, creating a positive culture that delivers results.

But there is an uncomfortable statistic: 86% of executives believe that their employees trust them; however, only 67% of employees actually do.

Employees in high-trust workplaces experience 74% less stress, 50% higher productivity, 76% more engagement, and 29% more life satisfaction.

They take 13% fewer sick days and are 40% less likely to experience burnout.

The opportunity in the AI age

This is where it gets critical in the AI age: AI is able to automate tasks and optimise workflows, but it is unable to build the psychological safety that makes teams willing to take risks, share bad news early, and innovate without fear of punishment.

When teams trust their leaders, leaders trust their teams, and team members trust each other, that's when an organisation truly succeeds.

Your ability to create trust is your competitive advantage as a manager.

The Trust Equation

Most managers rely on credibility (being competent) and reliability (following through).

But research from David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford's Trust Equation reveals which four elements matter most.

There are four components that affect trust:

• Credibility: the words that you say
• Reliability: the actions you take
• Intimacy: how you make people feel
• Self-orientation: your motives and focus

Increasing credibility, reliability, and intimacy increases the value of trust, but increasing self-orientation decreases trust.

Self-orientation, the most significant factor, can decrease trust regardless of how strong a person is with credibility, reliability, or intimacy.

Here's how to build each element:

Element 1: Self-Orientation

Self-orientation relates to how you focus on yourself versus your team. Highly self-oriented people are hard to trust as they are more interested in their own personal interests, and that may come at the expense of others. This is the biggest source of distrust in a team.

The 3 actions that lower self-orientation (and increase trust) most:

1. Assume good intentions in others. Assuming bad intentions creates barriers that are defensive and block communication.
2. Be attentive when communicating. Even though a certain conversation might not benefit you, paying attention to others when they are communicating is a great way to show that you are mentally present and care about them.
3. Put others first, even at the expense of yourself. Choose the path that helps them succeed, even if it means less spotlight on you. When you redirect credit to your team, be specific about who did what.

Element 2: Credibility

Credibility is whether your team believes what you tell them. It's built on honesty, expertise, and consistency between what you say and what you know.

The 3 actions that build credibility most:

1. Learn continuously. Always take steps to grow the competencies that make up your function and deepen your knowledge in your area of work. Spend time understanding and studying the elements that impact your work.
2. Share your reasoning process. When others understand how you arrived at a decision, they trust the decision more, even if they disagree with it.
3. Be humble. Acknowledge your mistakes quickly and explain what you learned. Taking ownership of errors builds credibility faster than being right 100% of the time. Be willing to admit what you do not know and own up to your mistakes.

Element 3: Reliability

Reliability is whether your actions match your words. It's the easiest trust factor to shift because it's built through small, consistent actions. Each kept promise deposits trust; each broken commitment withdraws it.

The 3 actions that build reliability most:

1. Show up. Deliver on every commitment, no matter how small. If you say you'll review something by Friday, do it. Small promises kept compound into deep trust.
2. Communicate proactively. When you can't meet a deadline, communicate early and reset expectations. Proactively managing expectations protects reliability even when circumstances change.
3. Track your commitments in writing. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks. Use whatever system you are comfortable with (notebook, task manager, or calendar) that ensures you remember what you promised.

Element 4: Intimacy

Intimacy is whether people feel safe being vulnerable with you, whether it's sharing concerns, admitting mistakes, or taking risks without fear of judgement or punishment. When you model vulnerability first, you signal it's safe for others to do the same.

The 3 actions that build intimacy most:

1. Share your own struggles, mistakes, and uncertainties first. Before asking others what went wrong, acknowledge what you could have done differently. Vulnerability from the top creates psychological safety—when you do so, others are more likely to do the same.
2. Care. Ask about people's lives outside work and actually remember what they share. Bring them up in future conversations. But remember to respect the privacy of the other person. Do not tell others or spread gossip.
3. Have empathy. Listen first without immediately jumping to solutions or dismissing concerns. When someone shares a problem, resist the urge to fix it instantly. Ask questions, reflect what you're hearing, and create space for them to process aloud. Remember to put yourself in the other person's shoes.

P.S. Know a manager who thinks their team trusts them (but probably doesn't)? Forward this newsletter. Trust is the foundation of every high-performing team.

Close the gap and amplify what makes you human.

Start Your Human Skills Journey.

Sign Up

Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Part of the HumanRise newsletter series. Developing irreplaceable human skills in the AI age.