Lead with Trust: A Relationship-Based Approach to Building Happier, More Connected Workplaces (Unabridged‪)‬

In Lead with Trust, leadership expert and HR executive Bart Spence challenges conventional leadership thinking and makes a compelling case for trust as the ultimate driver of people, performance, and sustainable success. Drawing on more than two decades of real-world experience—from corporate boardrooms to ballfields—Spence shows that the quality of our relationships ultimately determines the quality of our leadership and results.

At the center of the book is The 9 Principles of Trust, a practical, experience-tested framework brought to life through engaging storytelling, humor, and hard-earned lessons. Readers discover how trust is built—or broken—in everyday moments: keeping small promises, listening without trying to fix, leading with vulnerability, and showing up when it matters most.

Lead with Trust also introduces the Trust Metric, a distinctive and innovative framework that evaluates leadership trustworthiness across key dimensions. The Trust Metric assigns a measurable trust score while providing leaders with a clear, actionable roadmap for strengthening trust in themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

This book reveals how trust-centered leadership can:

Foster psychological safety and boost morale through honest, human communication
Reduce turnover while elevating performance and accountability
Strengthen relationships at every level of the organization
Repair broken trust after missteps—without shame or defensiveness
Develop confident, authentic leaders grounded in integrity, consistency, and vulnerability.


If you want to grow yourself—and those you lead—into true, lasting leaders, it starts with trust. When trust leads, workplaces become healthier, teams more loyal, and success far more sustainable.