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On Culture: Building Trust



Few things rank higher on our list of stated values than trust and reputation. Do our behaviors back that up?


It is obvious the erosion of trust in our country costs us all greatly. It may still cost us our democracy. I’m not getting partisan here – trust in our government has been declining since the Vietnam War. It’s obviously accelerated under our growing polarization, which is owned broadly.



Welcome to this next generation of On Culture. I’ve agreed to take on this missive. It will be hard to live up to Myste's success as its weekly author. I plan to spend the year in a deep dive of research and writing while we assess the next iteration of Culturati. We recently announced a pause in the Summit for 2027 and will continue On Culture, our Culturati: LIVE series, and pop-up gatherings quarterly in Austin and quarterly around the country. We have launched our listening series to hear from Culturati members. We met on zoom last week and our next listening session will be on September 16.


There are many models for building trust in the workplace – the best reference leadership behaviors and psychological safety. Communication that demonstrates empathy and clarity, especially during periods of change or uncertainty, is critical to building trust and effectively leading. Emotional intelligence is the mechanism for practicing Covey’s trust behaviors. 


I'm looking to create or find those succinct check lists for not only building trust in our organizations but in our communities. At Steven's church in Columbus, Tx, we do so by breaking bread together . . . and, of course, coming together in communion. Neither of these require religion, just people being real together, exploring our lives, ambitions and fears. 


Yours in curiosity and discovery,


Eugene Sepulveda



Artificial intelligence is transforming how work gets done, but it hasn't replaced the need for human judgment. If anything, it has made it more valuable. As AI delivers instant analysis and recommendations, leaders must still decide which opportunities to pursue, how to balance competing priorities, and how to lead people through uncertainty.


That raises an important question for organizations: How do we develop business judgment quickly enough to keep pace with technological change? How are MBA programs adapting to this challenge and what alternative pathways are being created to tackle this big workforce challenge?


Join us for a Culturati: LIVE conversation with Bjorn Billhardt, CEO of Abilitie; Alexis Stokes, Dean of The Bill Munday School of Business at St. Edward’s University; and Kate Hogan, VP of Learning & Development at Hagerty, exploring how business education and workforce development are evolving for the age of AI. Leaders from industry and higher education will discuss what it takes to develop managers who can think strategically, collaborate across functions, and make sound business decisions in an increasingly AI-enabled world.

Stephen Covey: The Speed of Trust

By Readingraphics


Summary: Trust isn't a soft virtue — it's the variable that determines how fast anything moves and how much it costs. Covey structures it around four core elements (integrity, intent, capabilities, results), built on character and competence and expressed through 13 consistent behaviors like talking straight, righting wrongs, and keeping commitments. Trust then radiates outward in five waves — self, relationship, organizational, market, and societal — moving from personal credibility to broader contribution. High trust accelerates everything; low trust imposes a hidden tax of suspicion, slower decisions, and disengagement. The core idea: trust can be deliberately built, broken, and restored, and it always starts with the person in the mirror.


To Create Psychological Safety, Don't Bring Your Whole Self to Work

Fast Company

By Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and Amy C. Edmondson


Summary: The popular advice to "bring your whole self to work" gets psychological safety backwards. Leaders who want to build safe environments for learning and innovation must resist the temptation to bring their "whole self" to work, and instead cultivate and express the best possible version of their professional self. The idea of unfiltered self-expression is seductive, but your "authentic" self also includes the undesirable, unprofessional, and dark-side dimensions of your character — and self-expression that feels authentic can still reduce your influence if it irritates, angers, or overwhelms others. Real psychological safety isn't about comfort or freedom from filters; it's a platform for productive discomfort — the kind that fuels innovation, learning, and growth — and leaders are responsible for architecting that climate deliberately, not by removing all restraint but by modeling disciplined, other-directed professionalism.


How to Build Trust in Workplace Relationships

HBS Online

By Ally Heinrich


Summary: Trust at work is often treated as fixed — a personality trait you either have or don't — but it's actually a learnable capability built through specific behaviors. Drawing on HBS's Negotiation Mastery course, the article lays out five: being clear about your real constraints and boundaries so others stop guessing; managing the tension between creating shared value and claiming individual value, rather than avoiding it; digging beneath people's stated positions to find their underlying interests, which often turn out to be emotional (dignity, recognition, security) rather than purely transactional; leading with visible, consistent fairness, since disagreement rarely erodes trust but opaque or exclusionary process does; and reinforcing all of it through follow-through over time, since trust compounds across repeated interactions rather than forming in a single exchange. The throughline across all five: trust isn't built by avoiding friction, but by handling it openly, predictably, and with genuine attention to what the other side actually needs.


Empathetic Leadership in Corporate Communications

Behavioral Sciences (PMC)

By Karen Robayo-Sanchez, Michael A. Cacciatore, and Juan Meng


Summary: This survey of 1,055 U.S. and Canadian communication professionals found empathetic leadership demonstrated a strong positive correlation with employee engagement and organizational commitment but did not significantly impact burnout, and — surprisingly — showed a positive association with turnover intention, suggesting empathy alone can't override dissatisfaction over pay, advancement, or fairness, and may even sharpen employees' awareness of the gap between what leaders say and what they deliver. The study also found significant gender disparities, with male professionals reporting higher perceived empathy compared to female professionals, and that higher-ranking employees perceived stronger empathic leadership than those below them. Bottom line: empathy drives real trust and engagement, but it's unevenly experienced and can't substitute for structural fixes to burnout and retention.


Why Emotional Intelligence Is Important in Leadership

HBS Online

By Lauren Landry


Summary: Emotional intelligence — the ability to understand and manage your own emotions while recognizing and influencing those of others — is increasingly treated as a prerequisite for effective leadership rather than a soft add-on to it. Built on four core competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management), EQ shapes whether leaders can coach well, manage stress, deliver hard feedback, and collaborate under pressure. The stakes are concrete: most people believe they're self-aware, but few actually are, and that gap alone can cut a team's effectiveness significantly; unaddressed conflict quietly drains company time and morale, while empathetic leadership correlates with measurably better coaching, engagement, and decision-making. Leaders can strengthen these skills deliberately — through journaling, 360-degree feedback, active listening, and structured reflection — but the throughline is that technical skill gets you promoted once; emotional intelligence is what determines whether you can actually lead once you're there.


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