Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire

September 1, 2026

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The five tests of executive trust

Howdy ,

Most people talk about trust as though it were a feeling.

"I trust her."

"I don't trust him."

"He seems trustworthy."

Useful as those statements may be, they are too vague to help an executive change. If trust matters to leadership, we need to be able to observe it.

We need to know what creates it, what weakens it and where it breaks when the stakes rise.

That is why I think about executive trust through five tests.

1. The Word

Can people rely on what you say? Executives create reality with language.

A casual "we're doing this" can redirect a team. "I'll handle it" can cause someone else to stop acting.

A promise to a client can commit resources that have not yet been secured. The Word is therefore not about eloquence.

It is about clarity, truthfulness and weight.

Do people know when you are exploring, deciding, committing or promising?

Or do they have to decode you?

Trust begins with language that can safely be acted upon.

2. Follow-Through

Does what you said become what you do?

Intentions are invisible. Other people experience evidence. A trusted executive closes loops.

If the commitment can be kept, they keep it.

If circumstances change, they communicate early.

If they miss, they take responsibility rather than quietly rewriting the agreement.

The opposite is expensive.

People chase. They remind. They create workarounds. They check repeatedly. Every one of those activities is a tax on trust.

3. Pressure

Who do you become when the stakes rise?

This may be the most revealing test of all.

Values are easy when the number is safe, the client is happy and nobody has made an expensive mistake.

Pressure shows us the real architecture.

When challenged, do you become defensive? When bad news arrives, do you punish the messenger?

When the target is threatened, do yesterday's principles suddenly become negotiable?

People remember these moments.

One disproportionate reaction can teach a team to hide the next problem.

One act of steadiness can teach them that truth is still safe when it is inconvenient.

4. The Standard

Do people know what good looks like…and does it hold?

Every executive says they have standards.

The real question is whether those standards are predictable.

Does quality depend on who is involved? Do rules change according to proximity, hierarchy or politics?

Do you tolerate privately what you condemn publicly?

A standard that changes with mood is not a standard.

It is a preference.

Trust grows when people know what will be protected even when protecting it costs something.

5. Rest

What does your leadership cause other people to feel and do?

I think of Rest as the ultimate scoreboard.

Not comfort. Not softness.

Rest is the internal steadiness people experience when leadership is clear, fair, consistent and committed to the outcome.

A demanding executive can create Rest.

People may know that the standard is high and the feedback will be direct, yet they do not need to protect themselves from the leader.

When Rest is absent, something else happens.

Capable people become cautious. They overprepare for reactions. They delay difficult conversations.

They wait for permission. They manage impressions. They spend energy managing leadership instead of doing the work.

The five tests are connected.

A clear Word reduces ambiguity. Follow-Through makes that Word believable. Pressure reveals whether reliability survives consequence. The Standard makes good performance repeatable.

Together, they create Rest.

And Rest creates Access: more responsibility, more information, more consequential rooms.

Eventually it creates Leverage: the ability for people and systems to carry more without constant executive rescue.

So perhaps "Do people trust me?" is the wrong question.

Try these instead:

Can people rely on my Word?

Do I close loops?

Who do I become under Pressure?

Do my Standards hold?

Does my leadership create Rest?

Those questions are harder. They are also much more useful.

Keep winning at work and in life.

Tola Akinsulire

Your Strategic Workplace Mentor

P.S. If one of the five is particularly live for you, you're welcome to write back with just the number.