How Trusting Your Employees Can Transform Your Leadership and Business

Four years ago, my company was stuck. Despite developing leadership frameworks that helped other organizations thrive, our own small business had plateaued with no growth for four consecutive years. Everything funneled through me. I was a bottleneck, constantly chasing the next shiny object while my talented team grew increasingly frustrated.

Sound familiar? As small business owners, we often inadvertently become the biggest obstacle to our company's growth. The good news is that a simple shift in mindset can change everything.

The Wake-Up Call

My turning point came during a humbling conversation with my COO, Debbie. When I asked her to take on a bigger leadership role, she hesitated. Then she dropped a bombshell: "I told your dad that he couldn't retire until I was ready to retire, because I would never work for you."

The Result of a Trust Deficit

After fifteen years working together, she didn't believe I trusted the team or had faith in her capabilities. She was right. I was making what I now call the "Villain Assumption"—unconsciously viewing team members as obstacles rather than allies.

This insight sparked a transformation in our company culture that ended our four-year plateau and led to our strongest performance in over four decades. The catalyst was a simple but powerful mindset shift I call the "Hero Assumption."

What Is the "Hero Assumption"?

The Hero Assumption is seeing your team members as the heroes of their own stories—people who genuinely want to contribute and succeed. This contrasts with the "Villain Assumption" that many business owners unconsciously make, viewing team members as problems to be managed rather than assets to be developed.

This isn't just feel-good philosophy. The Hero Assumption is grounded in decades of psychological research showing that our expectations of others directly influence their performance, a phenomenon psychologists call the "Pygmalion Effect."

How Trusting in Our Team Transformed Our Business

Here are the four practical mindset shifts that revolutionized our company culture and can help your small business break through to the next level:

1. Believe in Your Impact

The Problem: Most small business owners dramatically underestimate how their attitudes and assumptions affect team performance.

The Solution: Start tracking your "votes" for positivity versus negativity with your team.

How We Did It: I began keeping a daily tally of my Theory X (negative) versus Theory Y (positive) interactions with team members. This simple awareness exercise helped me recognize how often I was expressing doubt or micromanaging instead of conveying confidence.

Small Business Application: Create a simple note in your phone to track positive versus negative interactions with your team each day. Aim for at least a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions.

2. Believe in Yourself

The Problem: When business isn't growing, owners often lose confidence in their leadership ability, which further undermines performance.

The Solution: Recognize your own leadership biases and create "pattern interrupts" to change your responses.

How We Did It: I identified my trigger situations—like when team members proposed ideas that seemed impractical—and created specific alternative responses. Instead of immediately explaining why something wouldn't work, I began asking, "Tell me more about how you see that playing out."

Small Business Application: Identify one leadership situation where you typically respond negatively. Create a specific alternative response and practice it until it becomes your new default.

3. Believe in Others

The Problem: Small business owners often underestimate their team's capabilities and default to doing important tasks themselves.

The Solution: Use the skill-awareness-values framework to accurately diagnose performance gaps.

How We Did It: One of our team members had been in the same data entry position for 13 years. We identified her potential for growth despite her own self-doubt. Rather than assuming she couldn't handle more responsibility, we diagnosed the gaps as primarily awareness and confidence issues, not skill deficits. With targeted support, she excelled in a completely new financial role.

Small Business Application: Next time a team member struggles, ask whether they lack skill ("I can't do that"), awareness ("I don't know when to do that"), or have different values ("I won't do that"). This leads to more effective interventions than general performance criticism.

4. Believe in Your Relationships

The Problem: In small businesses, relationship strains directly impact results, yet many owners avoid addressing these issues.

The Solution: Create psychological safety through vulnerability and specific connection questions.

How We Did It: We implemented what we call "connection conversations" that address three questions employees desperately want answered but never ask: "Do you like me?", "Do you think I have what it takes?", and "Am I worth the effort?"

Small Business Application: Schedule quarterly one-on-one meetings with each team member using this three-question framework:

• "What's working well for you right now?"
• "What would make work better?"
• "What's next for your growth here?"

The Results of Trusting and Encouraging Your Employees

Speaking with thousands of leaders across multiple industries as part of our research confirms that implementing the Hero Assumption delivers measurable business outcomes:

• Dramatic reduction in turnover. Employees of approachable leaders who practice the Hero Assumption are 75% less likely to leave their jobs compared to those with unapproachable leaders. For the average small business, this translates to over $1.3 million saved annually in turnover costs.

• Increased organizational citizenship behavior. Employees of leaders who make the Hero Assumption are 78% more likely to go above and beyond their job descriptions, volunteering for additional responsibilities and helping colleagues without being asked.

• Higher job satisfaction. Research across multiple industries shows that 78% of employees with approachable leaders report high job satisfaction versus just 22% of employees with unapproachable leaders.

Making the Shift in Your Business

Ready to transform your own small business culture? Start with these three action steps:

• Monitor your assumptions. Keep a simple tally of positive versus negative assumptions you make about your team each day.
• Schedule regular one-on-ones. Begin with a simple "What's working? What could be better?" framework.
• Delegate one thing you've been holding onto. Identify one responsibility you've been reluctant to delegate, then partner with a team member to transfer it.

The beauty of the Hero Assumption is that it doesn't require complex systems or substantial investment—just a willingness to examine and shift your mindset about your team. For small business owners operating with limited resources, it's the highest-ROI change you can make.

My business transformed when I stopped seeing myself as the hero who needed to rescue everyone else and started seeing my team as the heroes of their own stories. Give your team the opportunity to surprise you with their capabilities, and they almost certainly will.

About the Author

Phillip B. Wilson

Phillip B. Wilson is the founder of Approachable Leadership, where he and his team help clients thrive and create extraordinary workplaces. He is a national expert on leadership, labor relations, and creating positive workplaces. Phil is the author of several books and articles, including Left of Boom: Putting Proactive Engagement to Work, which reached #2 on Amazon's Hot HR Books list, The Approachability Playbook, and the forthcoming The Leader-Shift Playbook: 4 Simple Changes to Score Big and Unleash Your Team’s Potential.

Company: Labor Relations Institute/Approachable Leadership
Website: www.lrionline.com
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