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T is for Trust You Can Actually See
Welcome! This article is part of an A–Z series where I’m sharing reflections on the patterns I keep seeing in teams, leadership and workplace culture.
Not theory. Not tips. Just observations from real working life.
I’ve been thinking about trust a lot in my work with teams and leaders, particularly because it’s one of those words we use constantly in organisations.
We talk about building trust, creating trust, earning trust, restoring trust, but I’m not always sure we stop to ask what trust actually looks like at work. Because I don’t think trust is something you can create simply by telling people, “We have an open-door policy,” or putting “trust” into your organisational values.
For me, trust is much more visible than that.
You can see it in whether someone is prepared to tell their manager something they know the manager probably won’t want to hear. You can see it in whether a team member challenges a decision in a meeting rather than agreeing and complaining afterwards. You can see it in whether someone admits they’ve made a mistake before someone else discovers it.
And you can definitely see it in what happens after somebody speaks up. That last bit is really important. Because asking people to speak up is only half the job.
Do you really want to hear the truth?
I’ve worked with organisations where leaders genuinely believe they have a culture where people can speak openly.
They’ll tell me, “Our people know they can come to us.” And perhaps they can, but then I’ll start talking to the people in the organisation and hear a slightly different story.
People might technically be able to speak up, but they’re not always confident that anything will happen as a result.
Or they’re worried about how their manager will react.
Or they’ve raised something before and nothing changed.
Or they’ve watched what happened when somebody else challenged a decision and decided that wasn’t a road they wanted to go down.
That’s the bit I find really interesting. Because psychological safety isn’t just about whether people are allowed to speak. It’s about whether they believe it is safe and worthwhile to do so.
UK data gives us plenty to think about.
The CIPD’s 2025 Good Work Index found that just 51% of employees said their manager was good at seeking their views, while only 46% said their manager was good at responding to employee suggestions. Even more strikingly, only 37% said their manager allowed employees or representatives to influence final decisions.
So we have a pretty significant gap between “We want your views” and “Your views actually influence what happens.” That gap matters because if I keep asking you for your opinion and then routinely ignore it, eventually you’ll stop giving it.
People learn very quickly whether it is safe to speak
I think we sometimes underestimate how observant people are at work.
They notice what happens when someone disagrees with the boss.
They notice whether difficult questions are welcomed or shut down.
They notice who gets listened to.
They notice whether mistakes are treated as opportunities to learn or occasions to find someone to blame.
And they remember.
So when we talk about psychological safety, I’m less interested in what the organisation says about it and much more interested in what people have actually experienced.
The CIPD describes employee silence as what happens when people choose not to speak up despite having something to say, often because they believe the risks outweigh the benefits. Its research found that around a quarter of employees report high levels of silence.
That statistic really resonates with what I see.
Because silence doesn’t necessarily mean people have nothing to say. Quite often, it means they have something to say but have made a calculation about whether it is worth saying.
Will anything change?
Will I be labelled difficult?
Will my manager hold it against me?
Will this affect my career?
Will I actually be heard?
And sometimes the answer they come to is no.
Trust isn't built by the big conversations
I think one of the mistakes we make with trust is assuming it’s created through big, meaningful conversations. Of course, those matter. But trust is usually built much more quietly.
It’s built when a manager says, “Tell me what you really think,” and genuinely listens.
It’s built when somebody raises a concern and doesn’t get shut down.
It’s built when a leader says, “I don’t know,” rather than pretending they have all the answers.
It’s built when someone makes a mistake and the first response is curiosity rather than blame.
It’s built when you disagree with somebody and discover that the relationship is still absolutely fine afterwards.
And it’s built when people see that speaking up can actually lead to something changing.
Those little moments accumulate. And so do the opposite ones.
If I speak up three times and nothing happens, I’ll probably stop speaking up.
If I raise a concern and get labelled “negative”, I’ll probably become more cautious.
If I admit a mistake and get publicly criticised for it, I’ll be much less enthusiastic about admitting the next one.
This is why I think trust is something you can actually see. There is a difference between voice and being heard. This is probably one of the biggest distinctions I want organisations to think about.
Having a staff survey is not the same as having employee voice.
Having an anonymous suggestion box is not the same as creating psychological safety.
Holding a listening session is not the same as listening.
Asking people what they think is not the same as being prepared to do something with what they tell you.
The CIPD’s latest employee voice research is very clear that effective voice depends on more than having a channel available. It requires leadership and managers who listen and act on feedback.
That’s why I often encourage leaders to think about the journey of an idea or concern.
Someone speaks.
What happens next?
Who listens?
Who responds?
How quickly?
What gets communicated back?
And if nothing changes, does the person understand why?
Because closing the loop is part of trust.Sometimes the answer will be, “We can’t do that.” That’s okay. People don’t necessarily expect every suggestion to be implemented, but they do want to know that their contribution was genuinely considered.
The danger of asking for honesty when we aren't ready for it
There’s another side to this that I think leaders sometimes find uncomfortable.
If you genuinely create an environment where people feel safe to speak up, you are probably going to hear things you don’t like.
That’s the deal.
People might challenge your strategy.
They might tell you a process is frustrating.
They might point out that a leadership decision isn’t landing well.
They might tell you that your management style is having an impact you hadn’t realised.
They might even disagree with you.
And if the response to that is defensiveness, explanation or shutting the conversation down, people will notice.
You can’t really have psychological safety if the unwritten rule is, “You can speak honestly as long as I agree with you.”
Sometimes trust asks quite a lot of us as leaders. It asks us to hear something uncomfortable and resist the urge to immediately defend ourselves.
It asks us to say, “I need some time to think about that.”
It asks us to admit that we might have missed something.
And occasionally, it asks us to change.
This is where behaviour matters
For me, this is where my work comes in. I’m less interested in giving people a script for “How to build trust” and much more interested in helping them understand the behaviours that either build or erode it.
That might be the language we use when somebody challenges us.
It might be how we respond when someone makes a mistake.
It might be whether we ask questions or immediately jump in with solutions.
It might be whether we notice who speaks in a meeting and who doesn’t.
It might be whether we create space for people who are less naturally confident or vocal.
Sometimes it’s about helping leaders recognise that their behaviour carries more weight than they realise. A raised eyebrow from the CEO can have a very different impact from a raised eyebrow from a colleague. Silence from a senior leader can feel like judgement. A throwaway comment from a manager can stay with someone for weeks.
That’s why awareness of language, behaviour and power dynamics matters so much when we’re talking about psychological safety.
Because if your staff aren’t speaking up, there’s a question worth asking..
Is it because they have nothing to say - or because they’ve learnt that it’s safer not to?
That’s a very different problem.
And it’s one worth listening to.
If this resonated, it’s probably because you’re seeing it too.
Philippa x
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