How Leaders Can Regain Trust in Untrusting Times

Pandemic confusion, police brutality, corporate corruption and unchecked elitism have eroded our faith in leaders who are supposed to act in the collective best interest of others.

In this opinion piece, Wharton adjunct professor of management Gregory P. Shea offers 10 steps for leaders who want maintain, or perhaps even reclaim, their ability to lead. Shea is co-author of Leading Successful Change, published by Wharton School Press, and senior fellow at the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management.

Google employees protest an attempt to silence their activism. Facebook employees stage a virtual walkout. Amazon employees protest over workplace safety, and a company vice president resigns over their firings. Employees at Target and Walmart protest as well.

Print and broadcast media struggle with various policies, and prominent journalists resign at the The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. The Washington Post reports on research findings that the COVID-19 pandemic will undermine trust in government for decades.