Why Building Trust Matters More Than Ever in Leadership

Building trust feels more urgent than ever and the data tells us so. In the last year’s Edelman Trust Barometer, fewer than six in ten people globally say they trust any major institution including government, media, business, or NGOs and in many developed countries, that number drops even further. As we await this year’s report, many expect that the decline may continue. In this climate of scepticism and fatigue, trust has quietly become one of the most urgent leadership challenges of our time. It is against this backdrop that the Women Emerging Podcast begins 2026 with a series on trust, not as a buzzword, but as a daily, human practice. As Julia Middleton says in the first episode, 

Trust feels in pretty short supply in the world just at the moment and we as women must surely need to try to help rebuild it. 

And rebuilding begins not with grand strategies, but with building trust within a team through effective team communication, consistent behaviour, and the small, everyday choices we make. This is how effective communication in leadership builds trust, becomes more than a theory; it becomes a daily responsibility in shaping team culture. In conversation with peacebuilder Samar S. Ali, trust is stripped of its slogans and returned to its actuality. A mediator, scholar, and founder of Millions of Conversations, Samar works at the intersection of conflict, democracy, and human rights. She is clear: trust cannot be demanded, rushed, or assumed. “I don’t even know if it’s created or if it’s built,” she reflects. “You’re always starting at a different place depending on who you’re meeting and what they bring with them.”  

How to Build Trust in Your Team

How Language Use Increases Trust

It seems Samar is building trust through language; the way tone, patience, and presence matter just as much as decisions. She speaks powerfully about listening when leading, showing how active listening improves communication but what is active listening in communication? 

How active listening improve communication 

They are not soft skills, but core leadership disciplines. From reading silence to noticing discomfort, Samar demonstrates active listening techniques and how to practice active listening in real time, proving that trust is often built in moments when leaders choose curiosity over certainty. “You can’t build trust if you’re fast asleep or making assumptions,” she says.

You can’t build trust if you’re fast asleep or making assumptions

In a world shaped by polarisation and suspicion, her message lands with quiet force: trust is not soft work, it is some of the hardest, most demanding work leadership teams will ever do. 

How to handle distrust in the workplace

The episode also confronts the harder questions: what causes distrust and how to handle distrust in a workplace when fear, bias, and power dynamics enter the room. Samar speaks candidly about identity, assumptions, and how the impact of unconscious bias on leadership decision making shapes trust long before words are exchanged. Her reflections highlight the impact of bias on leadership and the daily work of overcoming bias, which works not as a one-off training, but as a lifelong practice of self-awareness. She also names the consequences we too often underestimate: the dangers of distrust— fractured teams, stalled innovation, and cultures where people protect themselves instead of contributing fully. In contrast, she shows us that everyday actions that build trust— showing up, naming tension, acting with consistency. They quietly transform organisations and communities alike. 

And the conversation continues. Next week on the Women Emerging Podcast, we speak with Sheila Gujrathi about why trust sits at the very heart of running a business and what changes when leaders choose to build it deliberately, day by day. If you’re navigating complexity in your work, your community, or your own journey of leading, this episode is an invitation to reflect more deeply on why the world is in short supply of trust.  Listen to Samar Ali on the Women Emerging Podcast, and ask yourself: 

How am I building trust in the spaces I touch every day?