Trust has always been the quiet force behind great work. It shapes how teams communicate, how leaders influence decisions, and how customers decide whether to buy. Even so, trust rarely shows up in the dashboards and metrics that guide modern organizations. 

John Blakey, in a recent Harvard Business Review article, asked a simple but important question: If trust matters this much, why are we not measuring it? It is the kind of question that feels obvious once someone says it out loud. In a world filled with analytics, automation, and real-time visibility into almost everything, trust has remained strangely untouched. Everyone agrees it is essential, but very few organizations treat it with the same seriousness they give to pipeline, efficiency, or customer satisfaction. 

Blakey makes the case that trust deserves structured measurement. That idea will only grow more important as hybrid work, virtual communication, and AI continue to reshape how we interact. And the good news is that we have reached a moment when measuring trust is not only possible, but practical. 

Thanks to advances in meeting intelligence and behavioral analytics, trust is starting to move out of the “intangible” bucket and into something leaders can finally observe and strengthen. 

For a long time, trust felt like something you sensed instead of something you could capture. Leaders relied on gut instinct. Teams relied on vibes. Trust lived in the small moments that rarely made it into reports. A slight shift in tone. A habit of interrupting. The difference between a thoughtful follow-up and one that feels rushed. The clarity of an explanation. The way someone reacts when challenged. 

These moments matter, but they are too subtle and too frequent for manual tracking. Most organizations relied on indirect signals instead: engagement surveys, manager assessments, and occasional feedback conversations. Useful, but inconsistent. 

Because of that, trust became a universal priority without a universal way to measure it. Everyone cared about it. No one could point to where it was strong or where it was breaking down. 

 “Ask senior executives whether trust is an important part of leadership and you’ll get emphatic agreement … But when asked how their organizations actually measure leadership trust, most were silent.” -John Blakey

Blakey highlights something leaders have long felt. Trust is not a soft concept, it is a real driver of performance.  

• Trusting teams collaborate more openly, make decisions faster, and handle friction more smoothly.  

• Trusting customers stick around longer.  

• Trusted salespeople close more deals.  

• Trusted leaders retain more of their top talent. 

If trust has this much influence, Blakey argues, then organizations should treat it with the same seriousness they apply to productivity or quality. Not because trust can be turned into a perfect number, but because measurement creates awareness. Awareness creates accountability. And accountability helps people grow. 

It is the same transformation that happened with customer satisfaction, employee engagement, or product quality. The moment we began to measure those things, we became better at improving them. 

Here is the encouraging part. We do not need to invent trust from scratch. The signals of trust already appear in the way we communicate. They show up in patterns we can now observe with modern tools. 

Trust is influenced by four well-understood behaviors as identified by the Trusted Advisor Associates in their trust equation: 

• Credibility 
  How clearly someone communicates. How grounded their ideas are in evidence. Whether they explain concepts in a way that makes sense to their audience. 

• Reliability 
  How consistently someone follows through. How well they match their words with their actions. Whether their behavior is steady, even under pressure. 

• Intimacy  
  Whether people feel heard when speaking to them. How they respond during moments of tension. Whether they create space for others or dominate the room. 

• Self-orientation 
  Whether they are focused on themselves or on the person they are talking to. Whether their reactions signal curiosity or defensiveness. 

These behaviors are not abstract. They appear in every meeting and every conversation. They can be seen in patterns like talk-to-listen balance, clarity of responses, follow-up consistency, sentiment shifts, and how someone reacts to questions. 

This is where modern technology becomes incredibly useful. AI meeting tools can observe these patterns and translate them into insights individuals can use to improve their communication. Instead of trying to guess how they show up in conversations, people get real feedback based on real interactions. 

Trust stops being invisible. 

Learn how AI can help strengthen these behaviors without sacrificing authenticity by reading our blog on using AI to build trust. 

Once someone can actually see their communication patterns, things begin to shift quickly. People make immediate changes once they understand how they are perceived.  

• They adjust how long they speak.  

• They listen more intentionally.  

• They prepare differently.  

• They adapt when they notice moments where others seemed confused or disengaged. 

Teams benefit even more. They develop a shared language for discussing trust in a healthy way. Managers gain a coaching tool that is grounded in real behavior, not general impressions. Patterns become clearer, and conversations become more productive. 

Trust becomes something people work on, not something they hope will take care of itself. 

Modern work has made trust more important and more fragile at the same time. 

• Hybrid schedules mean fewer spontaneous interactions, which used to help build trust naturally. 

• AI tools are changing how we collaborate, which raises new questions about transparency and confidence. 

• Decision cycles are faster, which increases the cost of miscommunication. 
  Teams are more global and cross-functional, which makes clarity and connection harder. 

Trust is not just a cultural idea. It is the foundation that allows teams to move quickly without breaking alignment. If trust is weak, everything slows down. If trust is strong, everything gets easier. 

When teams can measure trust-building behaviors, they see improvements in: 

• How confidently people participate in conversations 

• How well leaders coach their teams 

• The pace and clarity of decision-making 

• Meeting efficiency 

• Follow-through and accountability 

• Customer relationships 

• Overall performance and morale 

Trust becomes a performance multiplier. 

The last decade focused heavily on productivity measurement. The next decade will focus on the quality of human interaction. The organizations that thrive will be the ones that understand trust, invest in it, and measure it with care. 

Trust is no longer something leaders hope to sense. It is something we can observe. It is something we can strengthen. And for the first time, it is something we can measure in a way that is fair, useful, and grounded in real behavior. 

The article from HBR is a timely reminder that trust deserves that level of attention. And now the tools exist to make it possible. 

Trust has always mattered. Now it is visible. And that visibility has the power to change the way teams work, communicate, and grow together. 

If you’re curious how your own communication patterns show up in meetings, try Relate for free and see your Trust Index in minutes. Try Now ->