Building trust through bottom-up culture

Building a strong company culture is a continuous process. It requires more than just defining values and hanging posters on the wall. It demands active participation and a genuine commitment to two-way communication. Too often, organizations fall into the trap of "top-down" culture building. Leaders dictate the values, but employees are left feeling unheard and disconnected. True culture change happens from the bottom up. Think of it like this: you can say you value transparency, but if you look down on people who speak up, your culture will be anything but transparent. Actions speak louder than words. So, how do we build cultures that truly resonate? • Involve employees in the process from the start. • Create safe spaces for open and honest feedback. • Empower individuals to contribute to shaping the culture. • Be consistent in your actions, demonstrating the values you preach. The result? A workplace where people are engaged and genuinely invested in the company's success. Yes, building a culture of trust and transparency takes time and effort. But the payoff is immense.

Most companies think they have a leadership gap. But what they really have is a control problem. It shows up in small, well-intentioned ways: ❌"Just send me everything before it goes out." ❌"I'll join to make sure we're aligned." ❌"Loop me in so nothing falls through." It feels responsible. But it teaches your team something else: 🧠 "I'm not trusted." 🧠 "I shouldn't take risks." 🧠 "They'll fix it anyway." You stay in control. But nothing scales. According to DDI, 87% of companies say they lack future-ready leaders. But it's not a talent issue. It's a trust issue. Because if you're always the one leading, no one else learns how. Trust isn't soft. It scales. When you lead with trust, you don't just run a team. You build a culture of capacity. Here's how that shows up in practice: 1/ You let them lead without asking → Legacy is letting go, not holding on. → Some wait for trust before showing initiative. 💡 Let someone else make the call, especially someone often overlooked. 2/ You replace commands with questions → Leadership isn't stacked. It's shared. → Asking invites voices that might stay quiet without permission. 💡 Try: "How would you handle this?" Then really listen. 3/ You normalize discomfort as growth → Silence doesn't mean alignment. → In some cultures, silence is respect. In others, it hides fear. 💡 Pick one recurring complaint. Surface it with curiosity. 4/ You notice what no one says → Emotional labor is real labor. → Especially for those navigating bias, code-switching, or being "the only." 💡 Ask: "What am I missing that matters to you?" 5/ You trade control for connection → Trust fuels loyalty. → For many, connection comes before contribution. 💡 Drop your next task check-in. Ask how they're doing instead. So ask yourself: Are you building capacity, or bottlenecks? Real leadership doesn't create followers. It creates leaders, who create other leaders. And that starts with trust. 🔖 Tag a leader who trusted you before you felt ready. 💬 What helped you let go? ✉️ DM LEADERS for the Trust-Built Leadership™ guide. ➕ Follow Loren Rosario - Maldonado, PCC Rosario-Maldonado, PCC for leadership that's human. Source: DDI, 2023

I once worked with a team that was, quite frankly, toxic. The same two team members routinely derailed meeting agendas. Eye-rolling was a primary form of communication. Side conversations overtook the official discussion. Most members had disengaged, emotionally checking out while physically present. Trust was nonexistent. This wasn't just unpleasant—it was preventing meaningful work from happening. The transformation began with a deceptively simple intervention: establishing clear community agreements. Not generic "respect each other" platitudes, but specific behavioral norms with concrete descriptions of what they looked like in practice. The team agreed to norms like "Listen to understand," "Speak your truth without blame or judgment," and "Be unattached to outcome." For each norm, we articulated exactly what it looked like in action, providing language and behaviors everyone could recognize. More importantly, we implemented structures to uphold these agreements. A "process observer" role was established, rotating among team members, with the explicit responsibility to name when norms were being upheld or broken during meetings. Initially, this felt awkward. When the process observer first said, "I notice we're interrupting each other, which doesn't align with our agreement to listen fully," the room went silent. But within weeks, team members began to self-regulate, sometimes even catching themselves mid-sentence. Trust didn't build overnight. It grew through consistent small actions that demonstrated reliability and integrity—keeping commitments, following through on tasks, acknowledging mistakes. Meeting time was protected and focused on meaningful work rather than administrative tasks that could be handled via email. The team began to practice active listening techniques, learning to paraphrase each other's ideas before responding. This simple practice dramatically shifted the quality of conversation. One team member later told me, "For the first time, I felt like people were actually trying to understand my perspective rather than waiting for their turn to speak." Six months later, the transformation was remarkable. The same team that once couldn't agree on a meeting agenda was collaboratively designing innovative approaches to their work. Conflicts still emerged, but they were about ideas rather than personalities, and they led to better solutions rather than deeper divisions. The lesson was clear: trust doesn't simply happen through team-building exercises or shared experiences. It must be intentionally cultivated through concrete practices, consistently upheld, and regularly reflected upon. Share one trust-building practice that's worked well in your team experience. P.S. If you’re a leader, I recommend checking out my free challenge: The Resilient Leader: 28 Days to Thrive in Uncertainty  https://lnkd.in/gxBnKQ8n

Leaders: create an environment where your team doesn't second guess themselves. Failure is okay. Difficult conversations need to happen. Worthwhile work is hard. But here's the thing: your team will fail to execute according to your standards when you've built a system around fear (whether intentional or not). And even worse, the standards they can achieve. Here's how I try (and fail at times) to build a culture of trust on the marketing team: Encourage Transparency: Make it safe for your team to share challenges, ask for help, and voice concerns. Have monthly or quarterly meetings with every team member, make it a safe space to share their concerns. Show Your Vulnerability: Lead by example, show your own vulnerability. Admit your mistakes, and model how to learn and move forward. Get Agreements: Fear often arises from uncertainty. Be clear about goals, priorities, and what success looks like. Share Before Ready: Encourage your team (and yourself) to share work-in-progress ideas, drafts, and projects. Waiting for "perfect" never works. Give Feedback With Empathy: Feedback should be constructive, not destructive. Focus on the behavior, not the person. Fear can stifle even the most hardworking and intelligent. It also blunts creativity, slows your team, and severely limits trust. It's your job to remove the barrier.

Your employees have wishes. Not for ping-pong tables or pizza Fridays, but for a small shift in your leadership. Unfortunately they probably aren't going to tell you what they really need. According to research, 58% avoid giving honest feedback to their boss—because they don’t believe it will make a difference (SHRM, 2023). Their silence isn’t compliance, or lack of engagement. It’s protection. Fear of retaliation, power dynamics, or simply not wanting to "rock the boat" prevents employees from speaking up. How you can grant your employees' wishes without magic wands? Here are five powerful shifts. 🌟 1. Lead from clarity. When priorities shift weekly, employees get lost in the fog. They don’t need the full strategy brief—but they do need to understand the why behind the change. 👉 What to do: Pause before pivoting. Write out your reasoning. If you can’t explain it clearly, the team won’t follow it confidently. Clarity fuels progress. 🌟 2. Keep your promises. Even small promises—“I’ll get back to you next week”—carry weight. When those are forgotten, trust begins to unravel. 👉 What to do: Calendar your commitments. Follow through, or circle back if something shifts. When your word holds weight, so does your leadership. 🌟 3. Invite their perspective. Your employees have insights you can’t see from the top. But if disagreement feels dangerous, those insights stay buried. 👉 What to do: Normalize feedback. Encourage respectful dissent. Create safe ways to speak up. Your best ideas might be stuck behind a culture of silence. 🌟 4. See them and the value they bring. People want to contribute more than what's in their job description. They want to make a difference, but you have to pay attention. 👉 What to do: Ask for their ideas. Celebrate them when they step up. Example: At Diageo, a multinational beverages giant, employees saved $7.8M just by sharing what they already knew. 🌟 5. Build trust with your actions. Trust doesn’t come from slogans or values painted on the wall. It comes from the way you show up—especially in the small moments. 👉 What to do: Be present. Listen more than you speak. Acknowledge gaps. Every interaction is a chance to either build trust—or burn it. ✨ Conclusion According to Gallup, companies that actively seek employee feedback experience 14% higher productivity and 21% higher profitability. No fairy dust required. One small but powerful action is more sustainable than Ping Pong Tables and Pizza. Do you have more to add? Let’s learn from each other 👇 #LIPostingDayApril  #Leadership  

Most policies don’t protect people, they protect the system from trusting them. One person messes up and a new policy is born. Not to fix the root cause, but to make sure it never happens again. Soon, you’re not managing performance. You’re managing fear. Buurtzorg Nederland, the Dutch healthcare rebel, did the opposite. They removed middle managers, job descriptions, and HR manuals. Self-managed teams made the decisions, and trust made it work. That challenged me. So when we worked with a construction client in Doha, we asked: What if the policies were the problem? The team was buried in approvals and process. I had my doubts. One supervisor asked, “If we remove the rules, what if someone takes advantage?” Another said, “This won’t work here. We’re not Buurtzorg Nederland.” We didn’t push. We listened. Then we rewired: → Brain-based safety cues → Co-created Trust Charters → Weekly feedback spaces Some leaned in. Others waited unsure if this was just another HR fad. One team went too informal and missed key handovers. We course-corrected. That’s when we saw the truth: Trust isn’t a tool. It’s a muscle. Built conversation by conversation. By week six, a quiet foreman — the one no one expected suggested a workflow change. It was adopted across divisions. No one gave him permission. No one needed to. Because trust made him feel he could. It’s still imperfect. But today, there are fewer policies and more ownership. That feels like a culture shifting. What’s one policy your team follows that no one truly believes in? Let’s explore what trust could do instead. #neurogetics #renergetics

Can we talk about culture for a second? Not the kind you write on the ‘About Us’ section of your fancy website. The kind you feel on a Tuesday afternoon when things go wrong— and your team either steps up, or disappears. That’s your Core Values Proposition in action. Not aspirational. Operational. Most founders define culture top-down. Pick a few noble words. Write a doc. Announce it at All Hands. But real culture? It’s built from the bottom up. From the actual behaviors your team respects—under pressure. That’s why I use this exercise in founder sessions: The Mission to Mars. (Yes, it’s as serious as it sounds.) The premise is simple: If you had to rebuild your company on Mars, who are the 3 teammates you’d bring? You’ll get real names. Real traits. Real patterns. You’ll realize who’s shaping your company’s DNA right now. And who’s just along for the ride. Because when culture isn’t intentional, it becomes accidental. And that’s the most expensive kind. Try the exercise. Then define your values based on the people already living them. Not the words you hope your company someday earns. If you want a team that scales, build culture from behavior—not branding. — Want more frameworks like this? Follow for more.