The Trust Gap

86% of leaders believe their people trust them completely. Only 33% of employees say they actually do.Sit with that math for a second. That's not a stat about bad companies. That's a stat about a blind spot.In this solo episode, Brek steps into the Locker Room to talk about the gap most leaders don't even know they have — the space between what leaders believe about their own trustworthiness and what their people are actually experiencing. And here's the hard part: it's not because leaders are lying to themselves. The higher you go, the fewer people tell you the truth. Somebody softens the feedback. Somebody hints instead of naming it. By the time it reaches you, you're leading off a filtered version of reality — without ever knowing it was filtered.Brek anchors the episode in King David's ask in Psalm 139:23–24 — search me, God, know my heart, point out anything in me that's off — and makes the case that this isn't a comfortable prayer. It's a posture. Not confidence in how we think we're leading, but the willingness to actually find out.What we get into:✔️ Why trust doesn't erode all at once — it erodes in the ordinary, untracked moments: the follow-up you never sent, the hard thing you let pass in silence✔️ Why the higher you climb, the more filtered the truth gets — and why that's not your people's fault✔️ E.D.O.T. — Everything Depends On Trust — the four-move framework for closing the gap: Examine, Define, Own, Trust✔️ Why most leaders tap out at "Own," and why that's the move that actually rebuilds something✔️ A real script for the conversation most leaders are too afraid to startYour Next Best Step: Pick one person on your team. Ask them, no ramifications: "What's it like on the other side of me — really?" Don't defend it. Don't explain it. Just keep asking "what else?" until the well runs dry — and let what you hear lead you somewhere better instead of somewhere more comfortable.Trust is the soil everything else grows out of. Go check yours this week.🎧 Listen now and take your next best step.