Trust Is a Culture, Not a Tactic
Before we begin:
My name is Troy McLennan. I’ve run teams, built businesses, and made just about every leadership mistake you can make — including trying to force performance without building trust first. I’ve led when I was trusted, and I’ve led when I wasn’t. The results aren’t even close. One builds momentum. The other builds burnout.
Today, I teach leadership the way I had to learn it: through fire, failure, and showing up when it’s hard. Trust isn’t a tactic. It’s your culture.
1. What Trust Really Means in Business
You want a team that performs without you watching. A business that doesn’t crumble the moment you step away. You want ownership, buy-in, and loyalty — but what you might really be missing is trust.
Does this feel familiar? - You’re involved in every decision — even the ones you shouldn’t be - You don’t trust your team to follow through without chasing them - Accountability feels like micromanagement - You have systems, but they constantly break under pressure
So what is it? Trust isn’t about being liked. It’s about creating the conditions where performance can happen without force. It’s the soil everything else grows from — your systems, your execution, your culture. And if it’s not embedded, you’re building on sand.
2. Why Most Teams Don’t Have It
Most leaders think trust is earned over time. But it’s actually built by design. And most small business owners never slow down long enough to design anything.
Does this sound like your world?
Team members hesitate to take initiative
Everyone waits for your sign-off
You feel like you’re dragging people instead of leading them
There’s tension or gossip under the surface
I Was No Different
I used to think performance came from pressure. I’d set goals, push hard, drive outcomes — and wonder why things never stuck. The real problem? My team didn’t feel safe. They performed when I was watching, and defaulted when I wasn’t.
Then the consequence hit. I lost a key team member — not because they couldn’t perform, but because they never felt supported. They never told me. They just left. That exit cost us months of rebuild, thousands in lost deals, and a major hit to culture. That’s when it clicked: trust isn’t a leadership style — it’s a leadership system.
I stopped managing and started teaching. I built frameworks for safety, autonomy, clarity, and consequence. And suddenly, things moved. People owned their lane. Trust was lived — not just spoken.
3. How to Build Trust Into Culture
You don’t build trust in meetings. You build it in how you lead when no one’s watching. Trust isn’t a message. It’s a rhythm.
Here’s where to start:
Set clear expectations — then shut up and let them run
Debrief wins and failures with safety, not blame
Use frameworks and systems that replace emotion with clarity
Hold your word — every single time
Reward ownership, not compliance
The Shift That Changed Everything
Once I stopped trying to extract performance and started focusing on embedding trust, everything changed. Meetings got shorter. Issues surfaced faster. Momentum became consistent. I stopped carrying everything — and started leading it.
You don’t build trust with posters and mission statements. You build it with consistency, clarity, and consequences.
4. What It Created For Us
I’ve led teams with low trust and I’ve led teams with high trust. The gap is night and day.
Here’s what we saw shift when trust became the baseline:
Faster conflict resolution
Honest reporting without sugarcoating
Team members solving problems before I even saw them
Higher ownership, better retention, and higher-quality output
And the best part? It wasn’t me doing the heavy lifting anymore.
In our Australian SME landscape — where many teams run lean, talent retention is tough, and pressure runs high — trust isn’t optional.
It’s a strategic advantage.
5. Final Thought: You Don’t Earn Trust — You Embed It
Waiting for trust to “build” is like waiting for revenue to grow without making a sale. It doesn’t happen by chance.
Trust is a culture. And like any culture, it’s either designed — or defaulted.
6. Ready to Build a Culture That Performs Without You?
Arcanium helps founders embed trust into the DNA of their business — not through slogans, but through structure.
📞 [Book your Trust Culture Execution Call →]
📄 Or download our Trust Culture Framework and embed it in your team today