🧠 Cultivating High-Trust Teams:

🍽️ Why the Best Leadership Happens Around the Table

The Leadership Table: - Powered by A Student of Leadership, UniPro Foodservice and our Leadership Development Program.

Where Food Industry Leaders Are Made – One Habit at a Time!

🎯 Quick – Timely – Impactful Lessons of Leadership

🍽️ The Opening Bite
In any bustling kitchen, one missing ingredient or misread recipe can ruin the whole meal. The same is true for teams: one broken promise or unclear instruction can spoil trust. Today, trust is in short supply – DDI reports that less than half of people trust their manager to do what’s right. (trust in managers has actually plunged from 46% to 29%.) Without trust, teams can’t sync up or serve their best.

But when trust is on the menu, the payoff is huge: high-trust teams are roughly 50% more productive and 76% more.

In other words, trust is the secret sauce of high-performing teams. Building it starts with everyday behaviors: keeping your word, communicating openly, and following through.

🧠 Leadership Insight: Trust-Builders vs. Trust-Breakers
Trust isn’t magical – it’s earned by consistency and transparency. Here’s a simple before/after to illustrate:

• ❌ Trust-eroding: “I’ll have that report by Friday,” and then Friday passes.

• ✅ Trust-building: “I’ll send a draft by Thursday – I’m on track, or I’ll let you know today if anything changes.”

• ❌ Withholding info: Changes happen in secret until the last minute.

• ✅ Building trust: Leaders share their thinking – explaining why a decision was made. DDI research notes that sharing rationale is “one of the most powerful ways for a leader to build trust”.

• ❌ Blame game: Pointing fingers or making excuses when things go wrong.

• ✅ Building trust: Own your mistakes first. A sincere apology (“I dropped the ball here, I’m sorry”) and asking how to fix it shows you respect the team.

In practice, trust-growing leaders always “walk the talk.” They deliver what they promise (or alert people early if plans change), keep the team informed, and invite input.

These behaviors say loud and clear: “You can count on me.”

🛠 Habits That Stick: Trust-Building Behaviors
Here’s how leaders turn trust-building into habit every day:

🍋 Do more of this:

• ✔️ Keep your word. If you say you’ll do something (big or small), do it on time.

• ✔️ Communicate proactively. Share updates and context openly: why decisions were made, and how projects are going.

• ✔️ Own your errors quickly. Admit mistakes, apologize, and involve the team in fixing them.

• ✔️ Listen and involve. Ask questions first and encourage team members to speak up. Show empathy when they do.

🍋 Do less of this:

• ❌ Vague promises. “I’ll try to get to it” or “Maybe later” erodes trust.

• ❌ Information vacuums. Letting important news or changes linger unspoken until chaos erupts.

• ❌ Blame and excuses. Pointing fingers or hiding behind titles when things fail.

• ❌ Broken small commitments. Even missing minor promises (like returning a call or a quick check-in) chips away at credibility.

🧭 Trust = Follow-Through, Not Excuses. Reliable, open leadership – not secrecy or broken promises – wins the team’s confidence.

📚 Real Story: A Hospital Director’s Turnaround
Consider a hospital department where the new director stubbornly insisted, “I never make mistakes.” Staff morale crumbled. Nurses and doctors stopped trusting his instructions, and patient satisfaction hit rock bottom.

Then he had a wake-up call. A mentor encouraged him to own a recent error and apologize. In a team meeting he admitted, “I was wrong on this decision, and I’m sorry,” then asked the team how to improve. Immediately, the atmosphere began to change. By finally walking his apology back up with action – collaborating on fixes and following through – he rebuilt trust. As DDI puts it, a simple, genuine apology “goes a long way in building trust with your team”.

Over time, staff engagement climbed and performance improved, all because he shifted from defensiveness to honesty.

💬 Reflection Questions

• What’s one recent promise I’ve let slide? How can I honor it now or communicate the change clearly?

• Do my team members feel safe speaking up or questioning my decisions? (If not, what could I do to make it safer?)

• How often do I explain the “why” behind my decisions? Would more transparency help my team trust the process?

• When was the last time I publicly acknowledged a mistake to my team? What happened afterwards?

🚀 Action Challenge of the Week

🎯 Pick a commitment to double-down on: Choose one upcoming promise or deadline that your team cares about.
📝 Plan & Share: Write down how and when you will deliver it, then tell your team or a colleague your plan (for example, in an email or brief meeting).
🔄 Give Updates: This week, provide at least one proactive status update (even “On track!”) so people aren’t left wondering.
💬 Ask for Feedback: After delivering, ask a trusted team member: “Did this help you trust our plan? How could I make things clearer or more reliable next time?”

🔁 Leadership Habit of the Week

🎯 Practice the “Double-Check” Trust Habit
Each day this week, before closing a loop or ending a conversation, ask yourself:

Have I followed through? Have I been clear?

Then, double-check it with the other person.

• “Just confirming — did that answer your question?”

• “Is there anything unclear I can help clarify before we move forward?”

• “Did we both walk away with the same expectations?”

Why it works: Trust isn’t built by being right — it’s built by being clear, consistent, and considerate.
This tiny check-in builds reliability and avoids silent misalignment.

✅ One small habit. One massive impact on trust.

🔎 One Last Bite of Curiosity
What if trust isn’t built in the big moments — but in the small, invisible ones?

Not in the all-hands meeting...
But in the 2-minute follow-up email you promised and actually sent.
Not in the strategy session...
But in how you responded when someone made a mistake.

What if the reason trust feels broken isn’t because of one major failure —
But because of tiny behaviors repeated too often... or not at all?

Start asking:
👂 Did I listen all the way through — or just long enough to reply?
📢 Did I explain the why — or just issue the what?
🔁 Did I follow through — or let something slide without saying?

Because trust isn’t spoken.
It’s proven. One small action at a time.

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