When Spirit Airlines collapsed in May, its travelers weren’t the only stakeholders left stranded. Thousands of employees lost their jobs overnight, with some filing a lawsuit over owed pay and benefits and others turning to GoFundMe for emergency financial support.
Meanwhile, the great American retail apocalypse continues. Several leading nationwide chains have confirmed store closures throughout the summer and beyond—with Macy’s alone planning to shutter up to 150 locations by the end of the year.
No matter the industry, business closures are life-altering for affected employees. Worse still when the news is utterly unexpected. And these sudden, sweeping shutdowns highlight a broader market challenge.
Breakneck disruptions caused by AI, restructuring, cost-cutting, and economic uncertainty are all pushing C-suites into faster judgments and dramatic new strategies. They are either capitalizing on new opportunities or preventing further bleeding of capital. But speed without listening can create reputational damage that lasts far longer than any short-term fix.
Gartner research from 2025 found that less than half (48%) of employees have faith in their senior leaders, which highlights a wider question facing companies today: What happens to trust when companies are having to make so many tough decisions? And how can we continue to earn it, both internally with talent and externally from clients?
BUY-IN BEGINS WITH LISTENING
Businesses build internal assurance by making their people feel heard. In other words, listening actively, acknowledging what is said, and being honest about what can and cannot change. There’s rarely an expectation to execute everything your workers ask for, but a visible interest in and exploration of their opinions goes a long way.
From the client side, building confidence involves conversations that feel less like a pitch and more like a genuine attempt at understanding. Business meetings should focus on asking questions about what the client wants to solve and what outcomes matter most. Crafting a mutual scope of work makes the process collaborative from the start and signals that you’re ready to help them solve the right problems.
According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, 73% of people say CEOs are obligated to facilitate trust-building and actively bridge divides, but only 44% believe they are doing it well. The report highlights that effective remedies could include consulting people from diverse backgrounds when making decisions (75%) and constructively engaging critics and skeptics (74%).
For me, one practical way to achieve real affinity is to enter conversations with curiosity. I work from a 70/30 rule: If you want someone to feel heard, they should be speaking for around 70% of the discussion. Whether you’re talking to an employee, client, board member, or partner, the goal is to understand why they see the issue the way they do before trying to persuade them otherwise.
People can often accept a decision they disagree with if they believe they were genuinely heard. Even when a company is fighting for survival, the way it communicates matters. Advance warning, clearer contingency planning, or more transparent partner outreach might not have saved Spirit Airlines or America’s retail stores, for instance. But managers could have reduced the sense that employees and stakeholders were simply blindsided.
Trust is never fully or permanently earned—it’s only ever borrowed. A strong pitch or all-hands meeting can cultivate it, but the real test comes later. Did the business deliver what it promised? Do employees and clients continue to feel heard? Do relationships remain paramount amid high-pressure crises? It’s why we should think about employees, partners, and clients as people, not just commercial relationships.
SOCIAL CAPITAL DRIVES ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE
Confidence built with external partners can become a bedrock of business strength. It creates continuity when contracts change, companies restructure, or budgets disappear.
In the same way that AI can power scale rather than mere efficiency, trust is also a catalyst for top and bottom-line growth. People who buy into you as a leader, and believe in your mutual goals, will naturally also buy into the business’s overall journey. It becomes a passion, not just a paycheck.
The same principle applies internally. Trust doesn’t mean everyone needs to agree—in fact, some of the most important leadership decisions will involve differences in opinion. But did those involved believe the decision-making process was fair? That’s often the only agreement you need.
At Gather, we try to build that process into how decisions are made. Project teams are given ownership without having to funnel every choice through a rigid chain of command. As founder, the buck stops with me, but input from the leadership team and those closest to the work shapes every major strategy. After all, people have different experiences, information, and perspectives, and a leader’s role is to use them to make a holistic decision that’s best for everyone involved.
HARD DECISIONS NEED HUMAN PROCESS
What damages trust is a feeling that an outcome was predetermined, free from any external input. Leaders must show that decisions are informed by more than their own assumptions.
Many executives turn to data to make tactical decisions, from measuring content performance to assessing which client programs are working. But the biggest strategic decisions are often about people, which means they involve your gut, too. Which partner do you want to build with? Which person do you believe in? Which relationship is worth investing in before there is a guaranteed return?
A dashboard can measure performance, but not potential, loyalty, chemistry, or conviction. Those decisions require judgment, accountability, and a willingness to stand behind the people you choose.
Justin Tobin is founder and president of Gather.
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