Trust – a concept so fundamental yet so misunderstood. Many view it as something that takes years to build, moments to destroy, and is nearly impossible to restore once broken.

Yet trust forms the bedrock of everything meaningful in team dynamics. Without it, concepts like empowerment, growth, and delegation remain mere buzzwords. Despite its importance, many leaders act as though trust requires years to develop, leaving tremendous potential untapped.

The Cost of Withholding Trust

Imagine this scenario: You're hired as the ideal candidate for a position. You bring years of experience and expertise. After onboarding, you discover your manager constantly looking over your shoulder, questioning your decisions, and slowing you down because "they don't trust you yet."

How would that make you feel?

You're a professional who gave up a secure position for this opportunity. You arrived with the best intentions and eagerness to contribute. Yet you're treated with suspicion rather than confidence.

This approach—withholding trust until it's "earned"—is the default in many organizations. The consequences are predictable:

• Talented people leave
• Those who stay learn to do only what they're explicitly told
• Innovation withers
• Engagement plummets

A Better Approach: Start with Positive Assumptions

What if we flipped the script? What if we began by assuming everyone in our organization is here to do the right thing and give their best effort?

Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify, offers a helpful metaphor: the "trust battery." Every relationship has its own trust battery, with each interaction either charging or depleting it. This visual makes it easier to discuss trust without overcomplicating things.

The key insight: start with a high charge. My hiring philosophy is "Hell yeah or no"—if I've hired someone, they start with a 100% charged trust battery. After all, why would I hire them otherwise? Until proven wrong, trust remains at that level.

This doesn't mean being naive. By keeping the trust battery concept in mind, you develop a feeling for each relationship's energy state and can adjust accordingly.

Remember, trust works both ways. Your team members also have a trust battery for you. They trust you to make good decisions and lead effectively. It's only fair to extend the same trust to them so they can do their best work.

The Payoff of Leading with Trust

Starting with trust saves tremendous time and energy.

Will trusting people lead to some mistakes? Absolutely. But when people feel trusted and supported, they learn from those mistakes. The earlier these mistakes happen, the less costly they are and the more likely they can be avoided in the future.

Shifting to a trust-first mindset might feel uncomfortable at first, especially if you've been conditioned to be skeptical. But in my experience, assuming the best in people has never failed me—and the results speak for themselves.

Great teams are built on trust. Why wait years to start building what you can begin cultivating today?