The Speed of Trust, the Speed of Change

Every leader has faced it. A change that should have been straightforward but turned into an uphill battle.

One CEO I worked with had the right strategy, the right priorities, and even the right resources. The challenge was that the team didn't trust leadership. Every adjustment had to be justified again and again. Change crawled. Momentum stalled.

Contrast that with another leader I coached. Their company faced even bigger challenges, but the culture was built on a solid foundation of trust and integrity. They still had debates, but pivots were accepted quickly. The difference wasn't strategy or talent. It was trust.

The reality is that all change is challenging, but without trust, it's nearly impossible.

As I often tell leaders, business is a system of relationships. If those relationships are built on values and integrity, change accelerates. If they're not, change grinds.

Trust = Speed of Change

In the middle of growth or transformation, every business is navigating the same cycle: challenge → need for change → take action → pivot → retake action. That's the essence of change management.

Here's the difference between companies that stumble and companies that sustain:

1. In high-trust environments, change moves fast. Leaders don't need to over-explain every adjustment because the culture assumes alignment.
2. In low-trust environments, change stalls. Every pivot feels like another "sell," another explanation, another round of justification.

The speed of trust equals the speed of change. And in today's business environment, the speed of change equals survival.

That's why the real foundation of execution isn't the plan. It's the culture beneath it.

Values and Integrity: Where Ghosting Breaks Trust

Values and integrity aren't soft concepts. They are the DNA of your culture, your team, your department, your division, your entire organization. They're the hard infrastructure of execution.

1. Values set the boundaries—what we will and won't do, even under pressure.
2. Integrity is the consistency—what we say matches what we do.
3. Together, they build trust. Trust builds capacity.

Values and integrity don't just appear in big strategy calls. They reveal themselves in the everyday moments.

I once coached an early-career leader who was laser-focused on priorities. He would put off responding to people if their request didn't fit the top items on his list. On paper, he was accomplishing the "right things." BUT... By not managing the expectations of the people reaching out, what message was he sending? You're not important. You're not a priority.

Today the word I hear so often for this is ghosting. Leaders often complain about being ghosted themselves, yet they justify doing the very same thing in the name of competing priorities. Here's the truth. When you don't close the loop with someone, you're not just putting off a task. You're weakening a relationship.

Ask yourself: where have you justified ghosting someone in the name of priorities? What message did that send?

That's the trap. We become so focused on execution that we forget the system of relationships that underlies it. If people don't feel seen or valued, trust erodes, even if the priorities get done.

So how do you avoid this? You don't have to drop everything for every request. You do need to close the loop:

1. Acknowledge quickly – even a brief note saying, "I see this, and I'll circle back" helps maintain trust.
2. Set expectations – let them know when you can give a full response.
3. Follow through – keep your word, even if the answer is "no."

Trust me. That relationship may not tie into today's priority for you, but in the system of relationships, they are the priority. Those moments are where trust is either built or broken.

These are small actions, but they carry weight. When you treat every interaction as part of the system of relationships, you show integrity in action. You keep trust compounding.

Execution runs on tasks. Sustainability runs on trust.

A Practical Framework for Leaders

Here's how leaders can turn philosophy into practice:

1. Clarify Values – Make them real, not wall art. Define them in terms of behaviors.
2. Model Integrity – Every leader's actions either reinforce or erode trust. There's no neutral ground.
3. Build Capacity Through Trust – When trust is high, pivots don't slow momentum—they accelerate it.
4. Measure Change Speed – Ask: how quickly can your organization act and adapt without "explanation fatigue"? That's your trust barometer.

The Values Audit: Making It Measurable

If you want to know whether your culture is living its values, or just talking about them, run a Values Audit with your team:

1. Best Applied Value – What value was lived out most strongly over the past 30 days? Why?
2. Least Applied Value – What value fell short? Why?
3. Improvement Path – What will you do to close the gap going forward?
4. Systematic Reinforcement – For each core value, ask: what programs, rituals, or practices could we implement to embed this into the daily operating rhythm?

For example, if respect is a core value, a simple ritual could be starting every meeting with one positive acknowledgment before diving into the agenda. Small reinforcements like this build the muscle of living values daily.

Do this regularly, and you'll shift values from being words on a wall to being the operating system of your culture.

Building Sustainable Speed

Trust doesn't slow things down. It's what makes sustainable speed possible. Sustainable speed is what makes lasting businesses in a world where the pace of change is relentless.

Sustainable businesses aren't built on ghosting relationships. They're built on closing the loop with customers, with colleagues, with partners. That's how values and integrity show up in action.

The speed of trust is the speed of change. To build a business that lasts, start with values, integrity, and a culture that can pivot without losing alignment.