Let’s start with a hard truth: Employees don’t trust words. They trust actions. 

Yet leaders stand in front of rooms full of employees, deliver inspiring speeches, and send out emails with big, bold mission statements, expecting that to be enough.

It’s not.

The number one communication mistake leaders make—the one that destroys trust faster than a bad policy or an industry shake-up—is this:

They talk about culture instead of showing it.

Your People Don’t Need Another Pep Talk

You’ve seen it before. Maybe you’ve even done it. A leader stands at the front of the room, brimming with enthusiasm, proclaiming, “This company values teamwork, excellence, and innovation!” The employees nod politely, but in their heads, they think, “Uh-huh, sure. But what about last week when my manager ignored my input? What about the coworker who always gets the credit for team efforts?”

Words alone don’t build trust. Employees don’t trust company slogans. They trust experiences. They trust what they see, hear, and feel day in and day out. And if those real-world experiences don’t match the messages being preached? They check out. They disengage. And, in many cases, they leave.

Show, Don’t Tell

After nearly 30 years in communications, here’s what I know: you cannot demand trust. You have to earn it. The only way to do that is by showing up consistently in a way that aligns with what you say.

I learned this lesson in a big way at my last employer. We had thousands of employees with different backgrounds, perspectives, and motivations. We could have plastered our values on posters, sent company-wide emails, and hoped for the best. Instead, we did something different.

We told stories.

Not our stories. Theirs.

Every week, we received letters from customers who had experienced something exceptional in our restaurants. A cashier who went above and beyond to help a mother with her screaming toddler. A cook who recognized a regular and had his order ready before he even stepped up to the counter. A team that pulled together to keep the drive-thru moving after a rush-hour disaster.

Instead of just saying, “We believe in great service,” we showed what great service looked like through real, tangible examples. And here’s the thing—when employees see themselves reflected in those stories when they see people just like them being recognized, it reinforces the culture in a way that no corporate email ever could.

Culture Lives in Actions, Not Posters

I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen leaders treat culture like a branding exercise. They put their values in fancy fonts, frame them in every hallway, and call it a day. Meanwhile, their employees roll their eyes and get back to their real work.

Here’s what those leaders don’t understand:

Culture isn’t what you say. It’s what your employees experience every day.

Think about it. If you say you value teamwork, but employees see individual contributors rewarded while team players are overlooked, what’s the real message? If you claim to be all about innovation, but every new idea gets crushed by bureaucracy, what’s the actual culture?

And if you talk about transparency, but major decisions get made in backrooms without input, do you think employees are going to believe you? Of course not.

The Secret to Building Trust: Make Employees the Storytellers

Want to build trust? Want employees to buy in? Here’s how you do it:

1. Find the real stories. Stop writing corporate-approved case studies. Instead, highlight the moments where your people are already living out the culture you want to build.
   
2. Let employees tell their own stories. Give them platforms to share their experiences. Celebrate the wins happening in the trenches, not just the boardroom.
   
3. Align leadership behavior with messaging. If you want employees to believe in transparency, leaders need to model it. If you want them to trust in your commitment to development, invest in their growth.
   
4. Create meaningful experiences. Want to be a company that values teamwork? Don’t just say it—design structures that encourage it. Want to be known for recognizing excellence? Build recognition into the way your business operates.
   

Stop the Talk, Start the Action

At the end of the day, trust isn’t lost because of one bad decision or a rough quarter. It’s lost in the small moments when words and actions don’t align, when leaders say one thing and do another, and when employees see empty slogans instead of real support.

If you want a culture where employees trust leadership, where they believe in the vision, and where they are actually all in, it starts with one simple shift:

Tell fewer stories about what the company stands for. Tell more stories about the people who make it great.