What Does Trust Sound, Feel and Look Like?

Sallina Jeffrey
Oct 28
2 min read

"Trust is the foundation to living a full life"

💭 I always knew trust mattered, but I didn’t realise how much until I started diving deep into the research on toxic dynamics in the workplace.

When trust disappears, you don’t just lose connection, you lose creativity, confidence, and clarity.

Want to know if trust is present in your team?

Look, listen, and feel for it.

🗣️ What trust sounds like

“I’ve got your back.”
“Let’s figure this out together.”
“Tell me where I got this wrong.”

👀 What trust looks like

People ask for help without flinching.
Errors are surfaced, not buried.
Feedback is shared early, not hoarded.

🧠 What trust feels like

Safety to show up without your guard up.
Motivation that comes from meaning, not fear.
Confidence to be curious, not perfect.

The truth? Trust doesn’t scale by accident.

It needs:

🔹 Leaders who go first.

🔹 Systems that reward transparency.

🔹 Mentoring frameworks that model mutuality.

When mentoring becomes a habit, not just a program, you start to see the culture shift, Slowly. Then all at once.

🧩 Start with micro-moments

Trust grows in the small, everyday gestures. The “I’ve got this” moments. The “I trust you” nods. The tiny choices that compound into culture.

If you’re curious about how trust shows up in your world, take the free Trust Assessment, I developed this simple 3-minute reflection tool that helps individuals and organisations to explore trust across three lenses: self, relational, and organisational.

It gives you a personalised PDF with insights and small, practical steps to strengthen trust, in yourself, your relationships, and your organisation.

📊 Why it matters

A 2024 Edelman report found that 79% of employees trust their employer more than any other institution, but only 52% feel their organisation deserves that trust.
In workplaces with high trust, employees are 3x more likely to feel engaged and 5x more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work.
Teams with strong trust outperform those without by up to 50% on key performance metrics.

Trust isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s the foundation of innovation, engagement, and psychological safety.

🤝 Mentoring: where trust becomes visible

If you want to turn good intentions into action, mentoring is the bridge. It’s where people practise listening, empathy, vulnerability and mutual accountability.

Because when people feel trusted, they show up differently.And when leaders model that trust, teams transform.

Trust doesn’t just happen. It’s built, one micro-moment, one mentoring conversation, one act of courage at a time.

Want to test Trust with in yourself, the relationships around you and within your organisation? Take the 3-minute trust assessment

Yours Truly