Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published on WRAL.com.
Around the world, people are losing faith in institutions and those who lead them. According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, financial insecurity, political polarization, and deliberate misinformation are contributing to rising skepticism. Even business leaders, who have consistently inspired confidence, are seeing declining levels of trust.
However, leaders who can cultivate trust personally—and in their companies—have a distinct advantage over their competitors. Employees at high-trust companies, according to the Harvard Business Review, report 50% higher productivity, 74% less stress and 40% less burnout.
“There are so many pieces of trust that are critical to business value,” says Bianca Freedman, CEO of Edelman Canada, who oversees operations across five offices and close to 300 employees. During her tenure, Edelman Canada has had double-digit growth and earned recognition as a workplace of choice.
For 25 years, Edelman has tracked global confidence in business, media, government, and non-governmental organizations. Donald Thompson, Managing Director at the Center for Organizational Effectiveness, recently spoke with Bianca, exploring why trust is declining and how leaders can reverse that trend.
Leadership During Uncertainty
Donald: As we dive in, let’s talk about the landscape of business and our current environment. How do you create trust and alignment with corporate goals when everything’s a little fuzzy out there?
Bianca: We always try to communicate with absolute clarity. Strategy matters a lot, but what matters equally, if not more, is how you communicate that strategy, how employees connect with what we’re doing as an organization, and what is within our control.
We are in professional services, and there is a ton of uncertainty around what’s happening and where our clients are spending. With that comes fear, which creates even more unrest in the work environment. I focus on controlling the controllables and communicating as clearly as possible, so people can get almost acclimatized to the fact that it is going to be a world of uncertainty indefinitely.
Trust and the CEO’s Role
Donald: The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer shows a fragile trust landscape. Businesses remain the most trusted institution, yet there’s growing grievance. 73% believe the wealthy don’t pay their fair share, and 62% think business leaders mislead the public. I want to focus on this second point. What do you think is contributing to that downward trajectory when people look at leaders? Why is trustworthiness more fragile than ever?
Bianca: The grievance and the mistrust of leaders are very much connected. If you look at the data in Canada, and even globally, there’s a throughline of financial insecurity that so many people are feeling. That puts you in a place of fear, and it makes you less trusting of the system at large, including business leaders or government.
Now “why” is a good question. Without getting political, you can see certain leaders, whether they’re in Canada or in other parts of the world, who are using misinformation. People have an overall feeling of “I’m being lied to,” and it’s also happening in Canada. In the trust research this year, you see where people are basically saying they’re okay with people turning to extreme levels of activism [or violence]. That is right here in Canada, and it’s all connected to this place of fear and uncertainty that many Canadian households are in.
On CEOs, though, specifically, it’s interesting because people say they trust “my CEO,” but they don’t trust CEOs in general.
Donald: That’s a powerful nuance.
Bianca: It is, and it makes sense if you think about it. Proximity is so important to trust. If you have regular connection points with your CEOs—and this is why we tell our clients that internal audiences are critical, to stay connected so employees feel heard. There is trust in your own company, and you want to trust that your leader will act in your best interests.
Stronger Internal Communications
Donald: I want to stay on one point, your internal audiences. I wonder if you have some thoughts about how people can get more serious, more committed in their internal audience communication just like they are for their external brand.
Bianca: I cannot stress enough how important internal comm[unication]s are, especially the day-to-day “micro communications.” If somebody leaves, do employees hear about it from their direct line manager, so they know this person left, that the work will go to someone else, or whatever needs to happen to maintain business continuity?
It’s critically important that managers are equipped to be able to communicate clearly. Sometimes it’s difficult stuff, but if you communicate clearly, there’s this trust that’s built over time.
One way to get started is to figure out where you can insert more or better communication touch points internally. Once you do that, it’s asking, how can we make these amazing and personable? Instead of a basic, straight ahead, top-down town hall, can we involve employees at all levels? One thing we do is celebrate personal moments. With the employee’s approval, we announce weddings, babies, whatever’s going on, marathon completions. People love it, and it’s such a small way to help us feel more connected and ultimately build trust in our leadership team.
Donald: I appreciate the point about the micro communication moments. They are where trust is built and lost so many times.
Failure Tests Psychological Safety
Donald: At Workplace Options, we’ve done a psychological safety study across 18 countries. And one throughline, including Canada, is that tension with one’s direct manager is one of the most critical workplace concerns. What’s your advice?
Bianca: The way I think about this is, how do I model psychological safety and reinforce it at all levels? When we think about psychological safety, we think more about the positive aspects, making sure that when you have a meeting, you speak last as the leader, or you invite open criticism. These things are important, but the real test is when something goes wrong, and a client is not happy. How do we respond?
As CEO, I’m not going to blame someone. I don’t care whose fault it is. All I care about is that we fix it for the client and we move forward. Modeling that and ensuring we’re doing that at every level, it’s a daily practice. This is what helps reduce those friction points for people at more junior levels, knowing that they can make a mistake. Or, if something goes wrong, they can come to their manager and figure it out together.
Modeling accountability builds trust
Donald: As leaders, when we take accountability, that has such leverage throughout the rest of the organization. We forget how much amplification our voice has in almost every situation. So, when we talk about missteps that we’ve made, learnings that we’ve had, things that we’re working on, that creates space throughout the organization to model that thought process.
Bianca: Accountability is the number one thing that I look for when hiring someone who’s going to do well in an agency environment. You have to have that strong sense of accountability. Every move we make, every call we have with the client needs to be great. We need to be prepared, showing up with a strong sense of accountability in good times, but also in bad. When something goes wrong, it’s owning it, fixing it, solving. “Less spin, more solve,” is something I say a lot to clients.
Donald: I love that: “Less spin, more solve.” We all know that things happen, people make mistakes. But when you own it, fix it, and then adjust the framework so it doesn’t happen again, I’ve had clients give me grace throughout my career.
Bianca: Absolutely. And you know what? They make mistakes too. We wouldn’t say, “Hey, you did this.” How would that help us? It wouldn’t.
Donald: Bianca, thank you so much for the conversation. I’d like to wrap up by emphasizing something you said, that proximity is important to trust. As business leaders, we need to make sure that we’re visible and we’re staying connected with our teams. That allows them to increase that trust barometer in our own organization.
Explore how to strengthen workplace relationships, foster psychological safety, and cultivate trust on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at “Building Workplace Trust: The Key to Organizational Health and Effectiveness.” This virtual summit brings together global insights, research, and practical strategies to help leaders build healthy, high-performing workplaces.
Donald Thompson, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2023 SE Award-winner, is author of Underestimated: A CEO’s Unlikely Path to Success, hosts the podcast “High Octane Leadership in an Empathetic World” and has published widely on leadership and the executive mindset. His latest book is The Inclusive Leadership Handbook: Balancing People and Performance for Sustainable Growth, co-authored with Kurt Merriweather, Vice President of Global Marketing at Workplace Options. Follow Thompson on LinkedIn for updates on news, events and his podcast.