Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire

July 28, 2026

Welcome to the Workplace Multiplier newsletter. Published Monday to Friday, equipping you to achieve your professional goals faster and without burnout or overwhelm.

Are You Trusted, or Just Talented?

Howdy ,

Last week, someone reached out to me about something I wrote.

In case you didn't read last week's piece, here's the gist of it.

One of the points I made is that being brilliant at work is no guarantee that the people deciding your next level will say yes to you.

You could be brilliant. But if the level of trust they have in you doesn't match the next level, you will not get the next level.

That's the point that struck a nerve.

Why?

Does that feel like politics? It isn't. It's just how most of us operate.

We back the option that carries the least risk. If you can be trusted to be safe, people will place a bet on you for the next level.

Being "safe and trusted" looks different in every work context. It just means you have to know what matters most to the people deciding, and give them signals…now and again…that you have it.

This was the part I had to unpack further for the person I was speaking with.

Every boss, every organisation, has its own picture of what a "trusted next-level person" looks like.

The question isn't whether their picture is good or bad. It's whether meeting it makes you come off as someone different from who you actually want to be.

In simple terms: will you be pretending, or will it be part of the road to becoming a better you?

Here's a way to tell the difference. Ask yourself:

1.   Does this expectation ask me to hide something true about myself - or does it ask me to build a muscle I don't have yet?

2.   If I met this standard, would I feel more like myself, or less?

3.   Is there a version of "safe and trusted" here that doesn't cost me my values?

Growth or erasure.

That's really the fork in the road. Every next level asks something new of you before it hands you the title…that part is fair. But the moment "safe" starts asking you to shrink who you are, you're not building trust anymore.

You're building a mask, and masks don't get promoted. The person wearing them does, and then has to keep wearing it.

So I'll turn the question back to you.

Where is your workplace currently asking you to be "safe"…and is that request growing you, or asking you to disappear a little?

And if you're honest with yourself: is there a version of you that your next level actually needs, one you haven't fully shown yet because you weren't sure it was safe to?

I'd love to know what came up for you. Reply and tell me.

Keep winning at work and in life

Tola Akinsulire
Your Strategic Workplace Mentor