I began my career in newsrooms, which tend to be distrustful places. Journalists are trained to view leaders skeptically and to ask hard questions. In recent years that attitude has become the norm in many organizations across society. In the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, just 42% of respondents expressed trust in government leaders and 49% in CEOs—with 63% contending that business leaders “are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false.” When workers don’t trust leaders or colleagues, bad things happen in companies.
A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review.