In this HR Daily feature, Audrey McGibbon reframes a conversation most organisations get half-right. Trust in teams, she argues, isn’t only about interpersonal dynamics between managers and employees — it also depends on each person’s “headspace.”

Someone who is overworked, burnt out, or feeling insecure may withhold trust no matter how much goodwill their team offers, because a growing cynicism is one of burnout’s clearest symptoms. It’s a characteristically GLWS insight: the individual wellbeing beneath the surface shapes the collective dynamic on top. As Audrey puts it, “you cannot build psychological safety without trust” — and trust itself is harder to feel the closer someone is to burnout.

Key takeaways:

• Trust in teams isn’t just interpersonal — an individual’s wellbeing and “headspace” is a backdrop organisations can’t ignore.
• The closer someone is to burnout, the harder it is for them to extend or feel trust, because cynicism is a core symptom of burnout.
• Treating everyone on a team identically, in the name of fairness, can backfire — real equality means giving each person what they need to feel included and perform at their best.
• Psychological safety, which many organisations prioritise, can’t exist without trust underneath it — so trust is the more foundational thing to build.
• Trust takes time and shared experience to build, and is even more critical (and effortful) in remote and hybrid settings.
• Organisational systems matter: rewarding competitive achievement over collaboration, or overloading managers into “silly hours,” quietly erodes trust.
• Low wellbeing distorts perception — “when we’re feeling tired and insecure we see daggers where none were intended” — so protecting wellbeing protects trust.