Leadership without trust is leadership without traction.

You can have the best strategy, clearest communication, and most inspiring vision — but if people don’t trust you, they won’t follow. Trust isn’t a “nice-to-have” in leadership; it’s the currency that makes every other leadership behaviour matter.

At Steople, we consistently see trust as the invisible force behind successful teams, resilient cultures, and high-performing organisations. In fact, within our Leading for Performance and Wellbeing model™, trust isn’t just another factor — it’s the factor that holds all others together.

Without it, performance is transactional. With it, leadership becomes transformational.

What Is Trust in the Workplace?

Trust in leadership is the belief that you:

• Mean what you say

• Do what you promise

• Have your people’s best interests at heart

• Can be counted on — especially under pressure

Research from Gallup and Harvard Business Review highlights that trust leads to:

• Increased engagement and retention

• Higher collaboration and innovation

• Reduced stress and burnout

• Stronger psychological safety

Yet trust is fragile. It’s built slowly and lost quickly. The challenge for leaders isn’t just to build trust once, but to nurture it over time and across contexts.

How Trust Shows Up in Everyday Leadership

Trust isn’t built through grand gestures. It’s built through:

• Consistent follow-through

• Transparent decision-making

• Listening without defensiveness

• Admitting when you’re wrong

These “micro-behaviours” compound over time, signalling to your team that you’re safe, accountable, and real.

One of the most common breakthroughs in executive coaching is when leaders shift from viewing trust as something they “have” to something they “build.” It’s not static — it’s an ongoing practice of alignment, empathy, and courage.

Coaching for Trust: Where the Real Work Begins

When we work with leaders who have hit performance plateaus or engagement dips, trust is often the missing ingredient. Not a lack of skill. Not a poor attitude. A deficit in trust.

Using diagnostic tools — including 360-degree feedback and Steople’s Positive Behaviour Change Framework™ – we help leaders identify where trust is strong, and where it’s been unintentionally eroded.

We coach leaders to:

• Close the say–do gap: Align intent with impact

• Have difficult conversations with compassion

• Own mistakes and model learning

• Extend trust before demanding it

One leader we worked with discovered that her “protective” leadership style was being interpreted as secrecy by her team. By learning to share more context, involve people in decision-making, and admit uncertainty, she regained trust and unlocked new levels of performance.

Why Trust Is the Final (and First) Step

In many ways, trust is the end result of all the other leadership behaviours we’ve explored in this campaign: clarity, consistency, emotional agility, authenticity, support, and capability-building.

Ready to Build More Authentic Leaders?

Contact us at info@steople.com.au or visit steople.com.au to learn how our leadership development programs can help your leaders grow in self-awareness, trust, and influence.

Leadership often evokes images of big ideas and bold decisions, but it’s the quieter behaviours, repeated day after day, that make the biggest impact. Among them, consistency is arguably the most underestimated. It’s not flashy or dramatic. It doesn’t demand the spotlight. Yet, consistency is the silent force that builds trust, drives accountability, and creates the stable ground teams need to perform at their best.

At Steople, we work with leaders who want to inspire. But inspiration without reliability quickly rings hollow. If purpose is the compass, and emotional adaptability is the capacity to respond well to change, then consistency is the engine; the steady drumbeat of dependable behaviour that others learn to rely on.

Predictability is Psychological Safety in Action

In our coaching work, we often ask: “How do your people know what to expect from you?” Consistency doesn’t mean being rigid or robotic. It means showing up in alignment with your values, maintaining fairness in decision-making, and keeping your word, especially when it’s difficult.

Leaders who are consistent foster psychological safety by:

• Communicating expectations clearly and repeatedly

• Following through on promises and commitments

• Holding themselves and others accountable — without favouritism or unpredictability

• Responding to challenges with a measured and reliable tone

In environments where change and ambiguity are high, consistent leadership becomes a psychological anchor. It reduces anxiety and builds the type of workplace where people feel safe enough to contribute, take risks, and trust their leaders.

Consistency and the Science of Trust

According to research by Reina & Reina (2006), trust in the workplace is strongly correlated with behavioural integrity — the alignment between what leaders say and do. When behaviour is inconsistent, trust erodes quickly.

In contrast, even small acts of consistency — like running regular one-on-ones, giving timely feedback, or recognising contributions — can dramatically reinforce stability and reinforce cultural values. Consistency signals that a leader is emotionally available, self-aware, and disciplined enough to manage themselves before managing others.

That’s why consistency sits firmly within Steople’s Leading for Performance and Wellbeing model™ — it’s not just about being steady; it’s about being trusted.

Coaching for Consistent Leadership

It’s easy to say, “Be more consistent.” But habits don’t change overnight. That’s why, in Steople’s coaching programs, we help leaders build rituals that reinforce consistent behaviour, such as:

• Using structured agendas and communication frameworks

• Aligning daily behaviours with stated leadership values

• Creating regular feedback loops to track follow-through

• Identifying blind spots where inconsistency may be undermining impact

Through reflection, behavioural data, and accountability partnerships, leaders begin to operate more intentionally — turning good intentions into visible, repeated actions.

The Long-Term Payoff

The benefits of consistent leadership compound over time. Team members begin to predict how a leader will respond, trust increases, and a strong foundation is laid for change, growth, and innovation. While adaptability allows for flexibility, it’s consistency that makes that flexibility trustworthy.

One of the greatest gifts a leader can give their team is predictability. Not sameness. Not inflexibility. But the steady presence that allows others to do their best work without fear of shifting standards or emotional volatility.

In the end, consistency is less about perfection and more about alignment. It’s showing up — again and again — as the leader you say you want to be.

Contact us to learn more.

Incivility in the workplace isn’t just about rude behaviour, it’s a silent drain on engagement, productivity, and trust.

Incivility can look like things that happen every day in the workplace such as ignoring people, talking behind people’s backs, dirty looks, not listening. The list is long.

Organisations that fail to address incivility experience higher turnover, reduced innovation, and disengaged employees. It can also lead to work cover claims, which are financially costly for an organisation and emotionally costly for those involved. Workplaces that foster respect and trust on the other hand, consistently outperform those that allow toxic behaviours to fester.

One of our clients, Sarah, a talented marketing manager loved her job. But when a new manager started dismissing her ideas in meetings, sending emails with passive-aggressive remarks, eye-rolling and creating an environment where teamwork felt more like a battle than a collaboration, everything changed. Over time, Sarah disengaged, stopped contributing at her usual high level, and ultimately left for a competitor, taking with her the immense amount of knowledge and talent she had.

Sarah’s experience is not unique. In fact, research confirms just how damaging incivility can be. A study from Rely Platform highlights the alarming impact: when employees experience disrespect, 66% reduce their effort, 80% lose time worrying about the incident, and 25% take their frustration out on customers. The consequences? Lower productivity, poor collaboration, a culture of fear and a loss of business.

On the flip side, organisations that actively build trust and civility see remarkable benefits. Employees in high trust workplaces report 74% less stress, 50% higher productivity, and 76% more engagement. With numbers like these, it’s clear that trust and civility can’t be ignored.

The Role of Positive Leadership

Addressing incivility isn’t just about stopping bad behaviour, it’s about proactively creating an environment that fosters understanding, acceptance and respect which leads to engagement, commitment. Research on Positive Leadership provides key insights into how leaders can build such environments.

Leaders set the tone for their team. The energy, expectations and attitudes a leader brings, has enormous influence on others. We recently worked with a General Manager of Sales (let’s call him John) who inherited a disengaged and resistant team. In the beginning, John took a “toughen up and push on” approach with his new team, but he could see that his leadership style was making things worse. In our executive coaching sessions, we explored how John could take a strengths-based leadership approach. John began recognising his team members for their contributions, encouraging collaboration, and checking in on their wellbeing. Within a few months, the shift was visible. His team were feeling energised, motivated, and more connected to their work and each other. Performance improved, turnover dropped and John was even nominated for an award in his organisation, by members of his team!

John’s experience reflects what research has found: leaders who prioritise trust, wellbeing, and positive leadership create engaged and high-performing teams. A study of 282 employees

in a German finance and insurance company found that positive leadership directly increases employees’ emotional connection to their organisation (affective commitment). More importantly, it uncovered the mechanisms behind this effect:

1. Satisfying Employees’ Psychological Needs. Employees need to feel competent, connected to their colleagues, and have a sense of control over their work.
2. Boosting Wellbeing. When psychological needs are met, employee wellbeing improves, leading to greater commitment to the organisation and performance.
3. Creating a Trust Based Culture. Trust is the foundation of a healthy organisation. Without it, engagement and productivity suffer.

These findings confirm what we at Steople see time and time again: leaders have the power to shape workplace culture in ways that drive both individual and organisational success.

Trust: The Cornerstone of Engagement and Productivity

Trust isn’t a soft concept; it’s a business imperative. It’s hard to build and easy to break. When employees trust their leaders, they are more likely to:

• Speak up about issues rather than engage in gossip or passive resistance.
• Collaborate effectively, leading to higher innovation and better decision making.
• Stay committed to the organisation, reducing costly turnover and knowledge loss.

But trust doesn’t happen by accident. It requires consistent positive leadership behaviours, clear communication, emotional intelligence, and the ability to address conflict constructively. This is where many leaders struggle.

How Steople Helps Organisations Build Trust, Civility, and Engagement

At Steople, we partner with leaders to embed positive leadership principles into workplace culture. Everything we do is evidence-based and easy to learn and implement in the workplace. Our approach includes:

• Developing Self-Awareness & Emotional Intelligence
  • We help leaders understand their impact through assessments, feedback tools (e.g., HBDI, 360-degree reviews), and executive coaching. A self-aware and emotionally intelligent leader will always out perform others.
• Strengthening Psychological Safety & Trust
  • Through culture and engagement programs, we equip leaders with strategies to create safe, inclusive environments. This encourages open dialogue, collaboration, and respectful workplace interactions, reducing issues like gossip, incivility, and distrust.
• Applying Strengths-Based Leadership
  • We teach leaders and teams how to leverage strengths, embrace change, and navigate challenges. Our programs focus on resilience, adaptability, and continuous learning to drive innovation and high performance.

• ·Prioritising Wellbeing & Sustainable Performance
  • We guide leaders in embedding wellbeing into leadership and team development, ensuring long-term engagement, motivation, and productivity.

A Call to Action for Leaders

The evidence is clear: leaders who actively build trust, foster civility, and support employees’ basic psychological needs create workplaces where people thrive. The cost of ignoring these elements is high, not just in dollars, but in lost talent, decreased performance, and a diminished reputation.

At Steople, we help leaders close the gap between where they are and where they need to be. If your organisation is ready to build a culture of trust, respect, and engagement, let’s start the conversation.

How to Build a Culture of Trust That Fuels Performance

Why Trust Makes or Breaks a Team

The Science Behind Trust and High-Performing Teams

• Trust
• Direction
• Clarity
• Commitment
• Interdependency
• Balance
• Communication

The Research is Clear: Trust Drives Performance

1. Trust accelerates decision-making. A Harvard Business Review study found that high-trust teams make decisions 25% faster than low-trust teams. When trust is present, people don’t waste time second-guessing motives or covering their backs.
2. Trust reduces stress and burnout. Neuroscientist Paul Zak’s research on workplace trust found that employees in high-trust organisations experience 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, and 50% higher productivity.
3. Trust fuels innovation. Google’s Project Aristotle, a landmark study on team effectiveness, found that psychological safety—the ability to take risks without fear of embarrassment or punishment—is the #1 predictor of a high-performing team. Without trust, people hold back their best ideas.
4. Trust keeps teams together. Research from Great Place to Work found that organisations with high-trust cultures have 50% lower turnover rates. People don’t leave workplaces—they leave environments where they don’t feel valued or safe.

Clearly, trust isn’t just about feeling good – it’s about delivering results. But how do you build it?

Three Levels of Trust Every Team Needs

1️⃣ Trust in Competence: “Can I rely on you to do your job?”

2️⃣ Trust in Intent: “Do you have my back?”

3️⃣ Trust in Character: “Do your actions match your words?”

How the Steople High-Performance Teams Survey™ Helps

Final Thought: Trust is a Game Changer