Leadership Through Trust: Let Your Team Change the World

This is a story about leadership through trust — and what happens when it disappears.

I’ve had my fair share of bad bosses. I know I’m not alone in that — it’s practically a rite of passage. But today, my mind wandered back to one particular boss, one particular team, and one powerful lesson that still sticks with me.

Looking back, I don’t think nostalgia is clouding my memory. That team really was something special.

At the time — and let me be clear, I take no credit for this — we had built a team of absolute rock stars. Sure, we bumped heads. If you’ve ever been in a room full of creatives, you know it’s inevitable. Ideas collide. Feelings get bruised. But the friction wasn’t a problem. It was the fuel.

We pushed boundaries. We tried things nobody else in our market dared to try. We innovated. Our skills didn’t just add up — they amplified each other.

When my son was experimenting with improv in college, he taught me the golden rule of the stage: You never say “no.” You say, “Yes, and…” You build. You stretch. You collaborate.

That’s exactly how we operated. Someone (usually me) would pitch something wild and unpolished, and the team would “yes, and” it until we shaped it into something brilliant and marketable.

And the best part? Our direct supervisor let it happen.
Their philosophy was simple: “Let’s float it and see what happens.”
They almost never said no. They trusted us.

That trust made all the difference.

When you have a team of high-performing creatives, the greatest gift you can give them is space. Space to explore. Space to dream. Space to fail and course-correct without fear.

That kind of leadership through trust doesn’t just make collaboration easier — it makes greatness possible.

Because here’s the thing:
You hired these people for a reason.
You picked them for their skills, their vision, their ability to build something extraordinary. Trust them to do the job you brought them in to do. They are stewards of your brand. They carry your mission. If you empower them — not micromanage them — they will deliver things you never even thought possible.

But the second you start demanding final edits on every draft, second-guessing every creative choice, or forcing your vision onto every project…
It’s over.
You don’t have a creative team anymore.
You have a team of yes-men. And if your team is full of real creatives, you’re not just killing projects — you’re slowly choking the soul out of the very people you need most.

Sadly, that’s exactly what happened to our dream team.
Someone decided it was time to “change things up” — and by “change,” they meant control. Creativity was replaced with compliance. Specialists were forced into tasks they weren’t trained for, without support or ramp-up time.

When they inevitably struggled, it wasn’t their failure. It was leadership’s.

Building a great team isn’t easy. It takes time, energy, and patience. You spend hours sifting through resumes. You sit through endless interviews. You invest in onboarding and training. And after all that effort, why wouldn’t you trust the people you chose?

Empower your team.
Trust their instincts.
Step back enough to let the magic happen.

You might just be amazed at what they build — and bonus, you’ll get some of your own time back. Because when you trust your team, you stop doing their work, and start leading the business the way you were meant to.

Because when you lead through trust, you stop doing their work, and start leading the business the way you were meant to.

And sometimes, late at night, I wonder:
If that team had been given the space to keep growing, to keep building, to keep dreaming…
How far could we have gone?

Maybe even world domination.