The leadership trust deficit: Why your employees no longer trust you (and what you can do about it)

Employees’ trust in their leaders is collapsing. According to the 2026 IC Index, a survey of 5,000 UK workers by the Institute of Internal Communication, only half of UK employees now say they trust their CEOs and senior leaders. More worrying still, that’s nine points down on the previous year (59% in 2025). 

That downward trajectory matters because trust and business performance are intricately linked: people at high-trust companies report 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days and 76% more engagement than people at low-trust companies. 

The 2024 Gartner Organization Structure and Leadership Trust Survey backs up the link between trust and engagement. In its poll of 3,529 employees, Gartner found a 25-point gap in engagement between those who trust their senior leaders and those who don’t.

So what causes employees to doubt their leaders? And how can you prevent such an erosion of trust in your own organisation? Below, we share seven things to think about. 

None of our advice is particularly complicated, but implementing it does take thought, care and time. Doing these things consistently, while the pressure is on, the news is tough, and your diary is full, is hard. But it’s worth it.

1. You pay lipservice to the values, but don’t live them 

A common source of employee mistrust is when leaders espouse a set of values but don’t actually adhere to them. It might be leaders talking endlessly about their commitment to “transparency” and “accountability”, but making decisions behind closed doors. Or employees seeing the word “integrity” plastered on every wall only for leaders to award the biggest promotion and bonus to the salesperson with dubious methods. Both are examples of the “say-do” gap, where leaders say one thing but do another. 

Contrast these examples with leaders who actively work to live their stated values. A great example of a leadership team closing the say-do gap on values is Microsoft Australia, whom Broom & Moon co-founder, Teresa North, once worked with. Having gone through an extensive development programme, based on the book Conscious Business: How to build value through values, the team had created a way of working that they all signed up to and held one other accountable for. 

They had begun to share their way of working with people managers and a group of “culture champs”, but had yet to roll the values out to all employees. At that point, the HR Director made a very deliberate call not to talk to employees until all the people managers were also living the values day to day. That way, employees would know the company was serious about inculcating the new values — because they’d have already seen the values in action from their managers and leaders.

Likewise, if you want values that stick, take the time to incorporate them into your own practice as a leadership team. Do the same with the next level down in the organisation — your people managers. And only once all your leaders and people managers are living and breathing the values should you start talking to employees about them.  

For advice on how to decide on a set of values that everyone will stick to, read our guide The Value of Values.

2. You don’t value employee feedback

Trust-eliciting leaders seek feedback from their employees — and are very deliberate about demonstrating they’ve acted on that feedback.

Research suggests leaders could do better on both fronts. In 2025’s IC Index, 60% of employees said their organisation welcomes open and honest feedback (dropping to 43% for orgs with more than 10,000 people). However, only 53% of workers say their leaders use such feedback to inform decisions and actions. 

How you listen plays a part in people’s perception of how open you are to feedback. The IC research shows that the most common ways leaders listen to employees are through large events (online and in-person), Q&As, and site visits. But in the organisations that scored highly for listening, this shifts to discussions on internal social media, 1-1 sessions with employees, and reverse mentoring. The lesson? Consider mixing in listening sessions that have a more intimate tone, where employees can have more direct conversations with individual leaders. 

And once you’ve listened, take action that makes a noticeable difference to employees’ lives. A perfect example is Virgin Airlines, which scrapped gender-based uniforms based on employee feedback. That action proved they not only listened but were willing to make significant changes based on employees’ views. 

Bonus listening tip: Read your engagement survey comments (not just the headlines provided by HR). They’re a goldmine for understanding what really matters to employees. We once took the time to read every comment in a large organisation’s employee survey. A repeated complaint, which had been missed in the big-picture headlines, was that engineers who spent most of their time out on the road — often in bad weather — only had access to cold water to wash their hands. Compared with launching a high-profile diversity initiative, fixing the plumbing probably sounds unimportant. But to those hard-working engineers, it would have made a massive difference. 

To sum up: Talk to employees often. Listen genuinely. Show empathy. Take on board what they say. And be sure to shout about how you’ve responded.

3. You lack an authentic voice

Trust among employees is highest when their leader talks to them in a way that is inspiring, authentic, approachable and caring. They want personal and real. Not slick and over-edited. Or (the opposite) stilted and starchy.

An example of the power of tapping into your authentic voice is a CEO we worked with during Covid. This leader was personable and popular, but his comms had traditionally been very formal. When lockdown hit and everyone was sent home, it was obvious a different approach was needed. So we got on a call with the CEO and simply asked: How are you feeling?

The leader opened up about his concern for his elderly parents and his pride in how everyone at the company was rallying. That conversation formed the basis of a heartfelt email that captured what he said almost word for word.

When employees received the email they said they felt more connected than ever, and really looked after. Weekly emails followed – always based on a chat about life, family, work, giving employees an insight into his life and sense of humour. The emails completely changed the CEO’s relationship with his team and how he viewed his own leadership. 

Of course, this example of an authentic leadership voice predates the mainstreaming of the likes of Co-Pilot and Chat GPT — and we’re sometimes asked if there’s any difference between AI drafting something for a leader and a comms specialist drafting it. 

Our answer? A huge difference.

Even if you prompt AI to adopt a certain tone of voice, it won’t have your particular leader’s life experience, unique ethical viewpoint, or bank of personal stories to draw on. Compared with getting that leader herself to open up, AI’s output will be bland and platitudinous. Employees will sniff out the slop and feel a dent in their trust in that leader. 

4. You’ve not empowered your managers

Managers remain employees' most trusted source of information, with people relying on their team leaders to make sense of what things mean.

The 2026 IC Index reports that 76% of managers feel equipped to talk to their teams about what's happening across the business. That’s a healthy figure, but it is down 4pts from the previous year.

Managers are often overlooked when it comes to communicating change or bad news. Yet ensuring your managers have the information and skills to communicate well is a huge opportunity to increase trust. As line manager Stephen Welch said in his brilliant LinkedIn post:

“When you think about communication from the employees’ point of view, 90-95% of it comes from me (the boss), their colleagues, or other teams in the business. Only 5-10% of Internal Communications in organizations comes from you guys in the Internal Communications department… the person who ‘owns’ internal communication is, actually, me, your friendly neighbourhood line manager. And it is my communication skills, how I work with the team, and how I lead them, that is going to have the biggest impact on employees’ day-to-day performance, engagement and motivation.”

Our advice: never sign off a message about change with ‘If you want more information, speak to your manager’, until you’ve fully briefed your managers.  

5. Change is poorly handled

In 2022, Gartner research found that the average employee had gone through 10 change initiatives, up from two in 2016. Since then, the pace and quantity of change have not let up.

In the 2025 IC Index, for example, more than half of employees surveyed said their organisation had restructured in the last year — up 12 points on the previous year. A third of those employees reported redundancies, also up 12 points. 

How people find out about change matters as much as the change itself. Employees who hear about major decisions directly from the CEO or senior leaders have significantly higher levels of trust than those who hear on the grapevine.

And there is clearly work to be done in this regard. The research showed only 56% of employees felt difficult changes such as restructures and redundancies were communicated with care. Unsurprisingly, such care has an impact on how employees feel. Of those who said change comms were communicated with care, 83% said they felt valued and 84% said they would recommend their employer as a great place to work. 

All companies go through change. But those who are committed to treating their people with respect and dignity can get through it positively, even when letting people go. 

Bonus tip: Don’t forget your frontline. Team members without computers are less likely to hear directly from leaders.

6. You lack a people strategy for AI

AI is a major — and unsurprising — contributor to the recent decline in people’s trust in their leaders. While most companies are pushing ahead with AI, few have thought through how they will talk to employees about AI and what it means for the future of the company and people’s jobs. 

But AI, like any major change, needs a people and comms strategy if you’re going to avoid haemorrhaging trust. 

Examples of leaders’ poor communication of AI-triggered job losses abound. Think Meta asking their employees to work from home for the day before emailing mass layoffs at 4am (Oracle did something similar, although their emails only started at 6am). And who can forget the CEO of Standard Chartered referring to the people they were firing as ‘lower value human capital’? (He’s since apologised).

Leaders are positioning AI as an opportunity for their employees to work more strategically. But those same employees can see people losing jobs to AI. And with 39% of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey saying they expect AI to decrease head count in the next year, who can blame them? 

But it’s not just about job security. It’s also about how people are being asked to incorporate AI into their day-to-day work. The 2026 IC Index shows that just 35% of employees think AI is being used for the right things within their organisations. And less than one in three feel their employer has clearly communicated how they’re expected to use AI in their jobs. 

Our advice: Avoid endless talk of the cost-savings and efficiencies you foresee AI delivering, without acknowledging the impact of AI on your people. And don’t expect employees to be as gung-ho as you are about AI’s benefits. Instead, be open and upfront about the potential downsides for employees — and acknowledge how they’ll be feeling. When there are inevitable layoffs, don’t do a Zuckerberg — handle them with humanity, respect and compassion.

7. In a crisis, you ignore the impact on employees

What do you do when the org you lead is suddenly all over the news — but for all the wrong reasons? Like PwC Australia, which hit the headlines for passing confidential government info to its clients. Or Abercrombie & Fitch, whose CEO was the subject of a shocking BBC documentary.

You might think it'll never happen to you. But if it does, your first instinct will be to go into self-preservation mode. You’ll assemble a crisis management team. You’ll lock yourselves in a room from where you’ll fire-fight the situation with PR.

You’ll emerge from that crisis room with a plan to heal. You’ll express a genuine commitment to change, and a heartfelt desire to rebuild trust with your clients and investors. And to communicate to the world just how very much you’ve changed, you’ll no doubt want to publish on your website a new set of values: Trust. Respect. Honesty. Integrity. 

But while you’ve been in the crisis room, on the other side of the doors, the people you need to live those values — your employees — have been feeling horrible. 

Sad. Scared. Angry. And full of questions like:

• What do I say to my friends and family who keep asking me what’s going on?

• Do I really want to be here? Is this the kind of place I really want to work?

• Does this place make my CV look bad?

• Are all the good people going to leave?

• Even if I stay, will the organisation survive?

At this point, the only people who are happy are your competitors. Having spotted a juicy opportunity to snaffle up your best talent, they’re already circling. 

What’s the solution? Well, the only way to come through a crisis stronger than before is to talk to your employees. And we mean talk to. Not broadcast to. Those conversations won’t be easy, but they will be enlightening — because your employees are your best source of intelligence on:

• What went wrong

• What really gets recognised and rewarded around here 

• What needs to change

• What’s special about the culture — what they want to hang onto

• What the way forward should be

• What they really value

• What integrity actually looks like at your organisation

And the people you entrust with your reputation — your employees — will feel a much greater sense of ownership towards the culture you want to build. Which is the only recipe for lasting change.