Trust: The Real Currency of Leadership

Why trust—not talent, perks, or pay—determines your team’s results.

Most managers think performance comes from skills, effort, or compensation. But the truth is simpler and far more powerful: your team will only produce results through you if they trust you. Trust—not salary, incentives, or even experience—is the real medium of exchange in people management.

In this module, you’ll learn what actually builds trust, what quietly destroys it, and how to assess your own trustworthiness with radical honesty. You’ll discover why trust isn’t one thing but a combination of authenticity, empathy, and logic—and how small, everyday behaviours shape (or break) your credibility far more than big moments ever will.

Whether your team is thriving, struggling, or somewhere in between, this module gives you a practical, actionable framework for understanding how much trust you truly have…and how to rebuild it when it slips.

You’ll learn how to:

• Identify the real signals your team gives you about whether they trust you

• Evaluate your leadership using the Trust Triangle (authenticity, empathy, logic)

• Spot the everyday “trust leaks” that quietly undermine your leadership

• Repair trust quickly and effectively—without awkward conversations

• Build a culture where people take risks, tell the truth, and bring problems forward

• Develop time integrity so your team can rely on you fully

• Make commitments you can keep—and renegotiate the ones you can’t

• Increase psychological safety so your team performs under pressure