Fundamentals of Leadership - #2 The Leader people Trust

Trust is the foundation of any relationship so as a Leader it if vital that you create a solid grounding for your Team to grow, contribute and thrive.

This means building  a culture where people feel valued, respected, and confident to speak up.

• Does everyone feel safe to speak up and share their views?
• Does every team member have a voice?
• Are you trusted as a leader?
• Do you lead with fairness, consistency, and transparency?
• How do you encourage challenge, innovation, and healthy debate?

A practical nugget: BRAVING

BRAVING provides a useful framework for understanding what trust looks like in practice

Boundaries - Set clear boundaries & respect those of others

Reliability - Do what you say you will do

Accountability - Own your mistakes rather than blaming others

Vault - Respect confidences & do not share

Integrity - Choose courage over comfort, & do what is right, not what is easy

Nonjudgemental - Share how you feel without fear of judgment

Generosity - Assume positive intent & interpret actions generously

Use BRAVING as a discussion tool with your team. Ask them which elements you do well as a leader and where you could do better. The real value comes from being open to hearing the answers.

What makes an effective team?

Google explored this question through its Project Aristotle research. One of its key findings was the importance of psychological safety — the belief that people can speak up, ask questions, share ideas and admit mistakes without fear of humiliation or punishment.

The research identified five important dynamics of effective teams:

1. Psychological Safety - feeling safe to take interpersonal risks
2. Dependability - knowing that colleagues follow through on commitments
3. Structure and Clarity -  understanding goals, roles & expectations
4. Meaning: finding personal purpose in work
5. Impact: believing that your work makes a difference

Psychological safety was particularly important because it helped create the conditions in which teams could learn, challenge and work effectively together.

So as a Leader how can you make it work:-

• Be accessible - Keep your metaphorical door open, whether that's a Teams chat, a regular drop-in or simply listen
• Be visible - When you're in the office, make yourself approachable rather than intimidating.
• Be real - Share your own learning, challenges and vulnerabilities.
• Be caring - Remember the people behind the job and take an interest in their lives.
• Be inclusive - Create opportunities for everyone to contribute, not just the loudest voices.
• Be different - Change the environment,  a coffee away from the office creates a different kind of conversation.
• Be open - Share the highs and lows. Be honest about what's going well and what isn't.
• Be Responsible - Own your part when things go wrong and focus on learning rather than blame.
• Be Protective -  Provide support, challenge unfairness and give people the confidence to do their best work.

If your team could give you one piece of advice about building trust, what would it be?

And, perhaps more importantly, would you be willing to hear it?

Because creating psychological safety starts with the leader — and it grows when people see that speaking up genuinely makes a difference.



Fundamentals of Leadership — practical nuggets to help you think differently about how you lead.