In modern business parlance, “trust” has become a buzzword. Executives and consultants tout it as a golden ticket, a fast lane to competitive advantage. We hear it everywhere: “We need to build trust,” “Engage your workforce through trust.” Glossy PR campaigns, carefully crafted speeches, and reach-out initiatives make the message loud—trust us.

Yet, despite the rhetoric, genuine trust remains elusive. Fewer than 50% of employees trust their employers, and trust in business leadership is trending down, not up. Sixty-one percent of people feel that business leaders use deception.

Why is the trust so low, despite all the intentions to build it?

The problem lies not in the goal of creating trust, but in the approach. Focusing on trust is focusing on the wrong end of the equation. Instead of talking about and attempting to “build trust” as if it were a new product, something external to the leader or a company, they should concentrate on building trustworthiness.

Consider a genuine, long-term friendship. It can’t be produced by telling someone “you must like me.” It comes from the experience of genuinely supportive behavior. Similarly, long-term trust, psychological safety, loyalty, and other desired employee or customer psychological outcomes cannot be commanded into existence. Trust must be earned, and this starts with trustworthiness.

The focus on trustworthiness points to the responsibility of the actor— the leader or company—to be the real deal, and clarifies that simply trying to elicit trust via smoke and mirrors is not an option.

Employees and customers alike are fed up with the psychological manipulation and empty promises we have seen from too many organizations. Companies preach about culture and loyalty while laying off workers and shortchanging clients. This gap between words and deeds has left many disillusioned and wary of trust and loyalty washing.

Too many breaches of trust have eroded the psychological “commons” of human goodwill. Prospective employees and customers seek multiple independent sources of reviews to determine whether the company and its leaders are trustworthy. Ultimately, in the age of the global village, trust must be earned in the same way it was earned by a traditional village blacksmith and a small-town banker—by cultivating and unambiguously demonstrating trustworthiness.

SYSTEMS OVER SLOGANS

Psychological outcomes like true trust or a sense of belonging are not the products of marketing campaigns or motivational speeches. They are the natural outcomes of systems and practices that consistently demonstrate trustworthiness, transparency, justice, and inclusivity. This is why my model for supporting systemic inclusion and intersectional belonging at work, The Canary Code, is centered on systemic variables organizations can control, such as organizational justice, transparency, and consistently demonstrating integrity and high ethical standards. Building trust on a solid foundation of organizational trustworthiness means embedding transparency and justice into the very fabric of how the organization operates.

Transparency: In a transparent organization, information flows freely and is accessible to all who need it. Decisions are made openly, with clear rationale provided. Regular, honest communication goes beyond periodic newsletters or all-hands meetings. Trustworthy communication requires a commitment to listening as much as speaking and ensuring that all voices are sought and valued. The best way to show that employee input is valued is by using it to improve processes. When employees see that the leadership operates with honesty and integrity, trust grows organically. On the other hand, if input-seeking is simply a checkbox exercise or worse, a trap, trust is crushed.

Justice: Fairness in processes and outcomes is crucial. This involves creating and maintaining systems where rewards, recognition, and responsibilities are distributed equitably. When employees witness consistent fairness, their confidence in leaders and the organization’s integrity strengthens. Likewise, customers whose concerns are addressed in a just manner come to trust companies, which in turn leads to loyalty.

BECOMING TRUSTWORTHY

Taking responsibility for becoming authentically trustworthy instead of attempting to elicit trust via mind games is the first step toward building lasting trust. There are no shortcuts or magical solutions, but there are practical strategies to build and maintain systems that embody trustworthiness. That includes:

1. Audit Your Systems: Review and assess the integrity, transparency, and fairness of your organizational processes. For example, do you cut corners when it comes to quality? Does your employee reward system have clear criteria focused on performance and learning new skills? And are these criteria honored in the decision-making? Are there mechanisms for correcting unfair decisions? Are there pay gaps based on gender, race, family status, disability, or other characteristics unrelated to performance? Identify areas for improvement and implement changes accordingly.

2. Measure and Respond: Develop metrics to regularly measure trust and other desired outcomes, such as psychological safety or belonging. Use these metrics as part of regular employee surveys to identify areas of concern and respond proactively. Resist the temptation to discount and explain away less-than-flattering information. Instead, look for patterns in critical feedback, take responsibility, and address the pain points.

3. Train Your Leaders: Ensure that all leaders and managers are equipped to act transparently and justly. Provide them with the skills to handle feedback and dissent constructively. This may require developing self-awareness, including understanding and addressing one’s own triggers and insecurities that may drive unfair behaviors. Another important skill is other-focused empathy grounded in reframing differences from a perceived danger to valuable diversity.

4. Communicate Actions, Not Just Intentions: Focus your communications on the actions you are taking to ensure trustworthiness, rather than simply stating your intentions to build trust. Demonstrate living by integrity through concrete examples.

5. Ensure Consistency: Most people have had their trust violated, which makes them vigilant for signs of inconsistency and likely to interpret any ambiguity negatively. Trustworthiness means consistently demonstrating ethics and integrity.

In a world weary of manipulation and broken promises, people seek genuine integrity. By shifting the focus from talking about trust to consistently demonstrating trustworthiness, leaders and organizations can create environments where trust will naturally emerge.