At workplaces, trust is often spoken about as a value by HR leaders. However, in a modern workplace with hybrid systems and too much dependence on tech, trust acts as a skill, especially at the leadership level.
The ability to trust teams, delegate meaningfully, and stay consistent under pressure is a learned skill, not an emotional instinct. Yet in many organisations, leaders are promoted for results while remaining under-skilled in trust, creating environments where control replaces confidence and compliance replaces commitment.
Commenting on the need for trust, Ajit Sebastian, CHRO, Proactive Data Systems, said, “Trust should begin right at the root on both the employer and employee ends. But on the employer end, also, micromanagement isn’t the right approach. In our company, we believe that people are educated and talented enough to take care of their responsibilities. No individual likes getting micromanaged.”
Forbes suggests, “If you want to create a workplace where employees breathe easy, and innovation isn’t stifled, you need to make trust a priority.”
Why?
According to the Forbes report, when employees feel trusted, organisations give them freedom to make decisions and own outcomes instead of checking every step. Lack of direction and micromanagement are major productivity killers, while autonomy is a key outcome of trust. It lets employees focus on meaningful work and deliver results in the way they see fit. In high-trust environments, workers are motivated because they control their own work, which directly boosts productivity.
Thus, the correlation between trust and productivity will clearly be visible on the dashboards.
A report carried out by Economic Times states that nine out of ten Indian employees believe trust at the workplace must be earned, and more importantly, 81% say a lack of trust negatively affects their productivity. This highlights how deeply trust influences everyday effort. When employees feel constantly monitored or doubted, they don’t necessarily stop working; they stop being accountable.
Low-trust environments also slow organisations down operationally. Decision-making becomes cautious, approvals multiply, and leaders spend time overseeing work rather than enabling it.
Further, lack of trust impacts productivity negatively. “If you don’t trust your employee, you won’t be able to hand over the right set of responsibilities,” said Ajit Sebastian.
Interestingly, hybrid and remote work have further exposed trust as a leadership skill gap. Leaders can no longer rely on physical presence as proof of effort. Instead, they must depend on outcomes, clarity, and confidence.
How are high-trust workplaces identified?
High-trust workplaces function differently. Research compiled by Great Place to Work states that a high-trust workplace is determined by the following questions:
- Credibility- Do workers believe leaders are competent, communicative, and honest?
- Respect- Do workers feel respected both as professionals and individuals with lives outside of work?
- Fairness- Do workers see the organisation as a place where everyone has a fair chance to succeed?
If ‘Yes’ is the answer to all the questions, then trust is the foundation of leadership.
The employees of a high-trust workplace are significantly more productive, experience lower stress levels, and show higher engagement. Trust reduces friction, leaving fewer clarifications, fewer defensive behaviours, and faster execution.
A key identifier of this is psychological safety. When employees believe they won’t be punished for speaking up, asking questions, or admitting mistakes, work improves. Teams learn faster, surface risks earlier, and collaborate more effectively.
But how to impart trust as a skill among the leaders?
Building trust as a leadership skill requires embedding it into how leaders are trained, assessed, and rewarded. Trust develops through consistent behaviours such as transparent communication.
This means leadership development programmes must train managers on how to lead without micromanaging, how to respond to mistakes without blame, and how to remain steady in moments of uncertainty.
Research by Deloitte found that trust-building improves when organisations link leadership evaluation to behaviours like empowerment, inclusion, and psychological safety, rather than only business outcomes. When trust is reinforced through feedback systems, promotion criteria, and role-modelling from senior leaders, it becomes a practised capability rather than an abstract expectation.
In workplaces where hierarchy determines communication, trust is inevitable. Otherwise, employees hesitate, not because they lack ideas, but because they fear consequences. This hesitation directly affects productivity, leading to issues going unreported and preventable mistakes escalating.
According to Michael Page’s India Talent Trends 2025 report, 61% of Indian professionals say they have high or complete trust in their business leadership, a figure higher than global averages. This growing expectation of trust reflects changing employee attitudes, particularly among younger professionals who associate trust with respect and growth.
However, trust only becomes productive when it shows up in real behaviours. Leaders who trust only when things go well are not practising trust as a skill, but rather practising convenience.
For HR leaders, this creates a clear mandate. Trust cannot remain an abstract value statement or an engagement survey metric. It must be built deliberately into leadership development, performance evaluation, and succession planning. Managers must be trained not just to deliver outcomes, but to enable others to do so without excessive control.
Because in today’s workplaces, productivity is not limited by effort or capability. It is limited by how much leaders trust people to do their jobs.
Trust, when treated as a skill, doesn’t just make workplaces kinder. It makes them faster, sharper, and more resilient.
In the end…
In today’s workplaces, the question is no longer whether trust matters, but who is willing to pay the price for not building it. Indian organisations continue to invest in systems that measure work, track behaviour, and monitor performance, while neglecting the leadership skills that actually make people perform when no one is watching
The skill to trust employees demands clarity, courage, and consistency, especially when outcomes are uncertain. That is precisely why it is avoided. Yet in hybrid, tech-mediated workplaces, it is the key to success. It is pertinent to note that the real competitive advantage ahead will not come from better tools or faster execution, but from leaders who have learned the hardest skill of all, trusting others enough to let them own the work.
