The Power of Trust

Modern Leadership in Action

In a recent team meeting, someone suggested I write a blog. Apparently, it’s a good way to reach a broad audience. So here goes. No buzzwords. No bait. Just a straight-up story about something real.

I’ve been leading Map Room since 2018. What started as a handful of specialists has grown into a team of hundreds, operating across sectors, specialisms and markets. We’re a practitioner-led consultancy, which means every single person here has delivered in the role they now consult on. And we’re unapologetically outcome-obsessed.

I could write about a thousand lessons from the past five years. But one thing keeps rising to the top: Trust. Not the vague kind. Not the fluffy kind. The real kind. The kind that builds businesses, wins engagements, and shapes high-performing teams.

And weirdly, no one ever really talks about it.

So, what is trust?

That’s the question I put to Deborah Bulock, coach, mentor, best-selling author (shameless plug invoice in the post). Her response:

“Trust is the bedrock of great relationships and compelling company cultures, and as such, is fundamental to people thriving, performing, and enjoying life and work. It enables ideas to be shared and progressed, problems to be aired and resolved, relationships to form deeply, and ultimately for people to operate at their best. It requires connection, authenticity, compassion, and vulnerability. It’s one of those values that we don’t give conscious everyday thought to unless it’s not there or has been broken. Then we know about it. And once trust has gone, it’s near impossible to repair. - Deborah Bulock

Well said.

It’s a truth I’ve come to appreciate more as Map Room has grown. The bigger we get, the more I step back from the detail, and the more I’ve realised how essential trust is to everything we do. For me, it shows up through three different lenses: unconditional trust, trust by agency, and structural trust.

Unconditional Trust

This is rare. But powerful. It’s the kind of trust with no strings attached. No caveats. No politics. Just belief in the other person’s intent and integrity. For most of us, it’s reserved for family. Maybe a life-long friend. If you’re lucky, a partner or two in business.

My dad was that person for me. He was my anchor, emotionally and intellectually. Since he passed, I’ve been lucky to have two business partners, Barney Collins and Zoe Evans, who bring that same level of wisdom, honesty and unfiltered perspective.

This level of trust can also exist with people who have achieved mastery, a golf coach, a world-class operator, where their advice holds no agenda and only value. For leaders, this is the gold standard. You can’t demand it. You earn it. And even then, you may never fully know if you have it.

You can’t fake unconditional trust. But you can foster it. You do it through collaboration, integrity and sedulity.

Collaboration

A long time ago, I worked with Neville Richardson (ex-CEO of Britannia Building Society). Someone once asked him how he felt about people using the phrase “Neville says…” to justify decisions. He replied:

“ I can’t do anyone’s job better than they can, and if I could, I wouldn’t need them. - Neville Richardson

I’ve never forgotten that. Great leadership means knowing you don’t have all the answers. That’s especially true at Map Room. We don’t succeed unless our people challenge, contribute and collaborate.

Integrity

Humans are uniquely good at spotting liars. It’s almost a sixth sense. That’s why transparency matters. And why deception, even when subtle or unintentional, can destroy trust.

I’d always rather say, “Yes, that’s true” or “No, I can’t tell you that yet” than hide behind corporate waffle. People can handle the truth, even if it’s uncomfortable. But they don’t forget being misled.

“ Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. - Albert Einstein

Sedulity

Put simply: show up and do the work. At Map Room, our leadership team still gets stuck into delivery. We pitch in, we roll sleeves up, and we never ask anyone to do something we wouldn’t do ourselves. That’s not performative. It’s cultural. It’s how we maintain credibility and connection with the people doing the work.

Redundancy (Not the HR kind)

The final ingredient. The willingness to let go. Leaders who stifle people when they start to outgrow a role kill trust faster than anything else.

“ Leaders should lead as far as they can and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit. - H.G. Wells

The better our people get, the more likely they are to move on. That’s not a threat to leadership. That’s the sign of it working.

Trust by Agency

This is the kind of trust earned in the trenches. You’ve seen the person deliver. You’ve seen how they respond under pressure. You’ve seen what they’re made of.

It’s why we often hire people we’ve worked with before. Not because it’s easy. But because it works.

I think of it like trust on the battlefield. You only need a glance to communicate. You know how each other ticks. I’ve worked with people for less than a year and would back them for life. Shared adversity does that.

“ The only thing that makes battle psychologically tolerable is the brotherhood among soldiers. You need each other to get by. - Sebastian Junger

For me, this kind of trust is priceless. If you can build a team with even one person you trust this way, it changes the game.

Structural Trust 

As we scale, personal trust has to give way to structural trust. We can’t know everyone. But we can build the frameworks that make success predictable. That means robust controls. Clear processes. Proper feedback loops. And a culture where people feel safe to flag mistakes, take accountability, and trust each other to act without fear.

“ Trust doesn’t mean that you trust that someone won’t screw up, it means you trust them when they do screw up. - Ed Catmull, CEO, Pixar

At Map Room, we call this owning our own proverbial. And it’s what I’m most proud of. Because it’s real. And it makes us better, every day.