Trust and Transformation

"You're ****ing with their lives."

That one piece of strong language completely reset my approach to transformation.

I was in a new leadership position at the BBC, tasked with reshaping the weekend programmes of a local radio station. The job was clear: figures were low, quality was patchy, and the staff were disengaged. They were in that odd happy rut that can happen with teams who don’t have room to be the best of themselves.

Even in those early days of leadership, I understood that transformation doesn’t sit in a bubble. Any new change will always be influenced by what happened before, whether the last change was handled well, or whether the last opportunity for advancement materialised or achieved its goals. These are the narrative ghosts that haunt new projects.

My investigation uncovered a list of half-given assurances and broken semi-promises that had never come to fruition. The prevailing attitude ranged from “nothing ever really changes” to “management has lied to us for years.” The team needed an honest leader they could trust.

I decided to adopt rigorous honesty, completely forgetting that trust is built and earned through careful actions and communications. I knew I was trustworthy and honest, and I was determined to change what needed to be changed without making promises I couldn’t keep. However, the team didn’t know that—I hadn’t shown it.

I held individual meetings, programme team meetings, and spoke about the investigation, the plan, and the process. I provided a clear roadmap. Then, my boss called me into the office and asked, “Why is everybody complaining about you?”

I was stunned.

I called a contemporary of mine, a trusted confidante and friend, and explained the situation. She said, “You’re ****ing with their lives… you are looking at too big a picture, you’re talking to them about the project and your plans… all they are hearing is that you are ****ing with their lives and they’re scared.”

Of course they were.

A new leader had demanded a level of trust that needed to be earned. I had gone in with clear plans and an honest, open approach. They didn’t need that; they needed to be slowly guided, to have each step carefully explained. They needed updates on what had been said and what had been done. They didn’t need telling—they needed showing.

As leaders in transformation, we sometimes forget that:

• Trust is earned slowly and lost quickly.

• Rigorous honesty without trust is just a different colour of lie.

• The ghosts will haunt you even after being successful.

• No matter how small or big the transformation is, you are still ****ing with their lives.