CEOs Say Employees Trust Them. Only 46% Do. How to Close the Trust Gap
BCG found a 44-point gap between CEO and employee views of trust. Here are five daily practices, a small-team routine, and a simple way to track progress.
In this article 10 sections
About 90% of CEOs say their employees trust leadership, but only 46% of employees agree, according to BCG's CEO Insomnia Index released October 14, 2026. The fix is not a program. BCG's Deborah Lovich argues it is five daily habits: celebrate people, visit the work, show interest, cocreate changes, and go first.
For a founder or a growing team, the number is a warning. A 44-point gap means most leaders are steering by a picture that staff do not share. This guide turns the BCG findings into a working routine for companies of any size. It covers what the survey measured, why the gap opens, how to apply each of the five practices in a small company, and how to check whether trust is moving. It is written for founders and first-time executives. Upstart Wire covers how companies are run day to day, and trust is an operating issue, not a soft one.
What does the BCG trust data actually show?
BCG surveyed 645 CEOs at companies with at least $100 million in revenue and 500 nonexecutive employees, then combined the results with five years of CEO turnover data from the S&P 1200. Nearly 90% of CEOs believe employees trust leadership overall. Only 46% of employees agree. On well-being, nearly 70% of CEOs think employees trust them to prioritize it when funding key priorities, while 36% of employees say so. You can read the release on BCG's CEO Insomnia Index page.
The sharpest gap is about AI. Roughly 40% of employees say their CEO has not been open enough about how AI will affect their roles and careers. Only 15% of CEOs worry their approach could erode trust. The payoff for getting it right is large. Among employees whose trust in their CEO's AI leadership grew, about half say they are more willing to go above and beyond. Among those whose trust fell, fewer than 10% say so.
One caution on scope. These are large companies, with at least $100 million in revenue. A ten-person startup is different because the founder talks to everyone daily. The pattern still applies, since a founder's picture of morale often drifts from what people say among themselves. As a company grows past the point where the CEO can hear every conversation, the gap tends to open.
Why do leaders and employees see trust so differently?
Leaders hear filtered information. Bad news is softened as it moves up, and employees who disagree often stay quiet. A CEO who gets polite answers in meetings can conclude that things are fine. BCG's Julie Bedard attributes part of the gap to a more transactional employer-employee relationship at some companies, where each side tracks what it gets and gives.
Boston Consulting Group managing director Deborah Lovich offers a related frame in her Fortune commentary. She says work is a product that employees choose again every day, and that they decide how much energy to give. Pay, benefits, and flexibility are baseline expectations. The features that move effort are emotional: feeling seen, valued, and included in decisions.
That reframing matters for a small company that cannot out-pay a large one. Emotional features cost little. They do require leaders to change daily behavior, which is harder than writing a check. The five practices below put that into a routine.
How do you celebrate your people in a way that lands?
Give recognition that is specific and timely. Name the person, the action, and the result, within a day or two of the work. "Great job on the launch" is generic. "Your fix on the billing bug on Tuesday meant 40 customers were not double-charged" is specific. Lovich cites research that specific, timely recognition boosts intrinsic motivation more than reviews or bonuses.
A simple routine is to end each weekly leadership meeting by naming one person each leader will thank in the next 24 hours, and why. Keep a short list, and make sure recognition is spread across the team, not only the loudest contributors. Our guide on running a one-on-one people look forward to adds a place to deliver it privately.
What does "go, see, and help" look like?
Visit where work happens and offer hands-on help. For a software team, that might mean sitting with the support queue for an hour. For a restaurant group, it means working a shift. The point is to learn what the process feels like, not to inspect it.
BCG describes a client in operations where analysis showed that frontline managers' coaching and motivation drove the performance gaps between teams. The company redesigned its daily shift handover meeting, using three steps: explain the why, celebrate someone, and promote peer collaboration. Results improved, and the CEO cited the effort in the annual report. You can copy the format in any team that hands work from one shift to another.
How do you show interest without being awkward?
Learn about employees as people. Lovich suggests sharing something about yourself first if you need to open the door. Ask about a project they care about, a skill they want to build, or what makes a good week for them. Then write it down and follow up. People notice when a leader remembers.
This habit also helps when roles change. Our piece on managing former peers shows how knowing someone as a person eases a tricky transition. Interest builds the credit you spend when a hard conversation arrives.
Why cocreate changes instead of announcing them?
Lovich says imposed change lowers productivity and raises resentment, while involvement builds support. Bring affected people in at the start. Amazon is cited for keeping an empty chair in meetings to represent the customer. Lovich's version fills the chair with rotating employees.
Dropbox offers a model. After its "Virtual First" shift, the share of employees who say they feel successful at work rose from 48% to 92%, according to Dropbox's internal data cited by Lovich. The company redesigned work like a product, with discovery, tests of flexible schedules, meeting rules, and in-person gatherings, then adjusted based on feedback. Offer acceptance rose and attrition fell.
For AI, cocreation is the direct answer to the transparency gap. Before you roll out a tool that changes someone's job, ask the people in that job what they would change, and tell them what the company will and will not do with the result. Employees do not need a perfect plan. They need to hear it from you, early, and in plain terms.
What does "do it first" require?
Model any change before you ask others to make it. If you want people to use a new tool, use it in front of them. If you want shorter meetings, cut yours first. Lovich notes that most change efforts fail when leaders do not model the change.
The same logic applies to hard moments. Our guide to five hard conversations every first-time manager needs a script for gives you language for the ones you are tempted to avoid. Doing the hard thing first signals that the standard applies to you.
What if you lead a small team with no HR function?
Small teams have an advantage: you can run all five practices without a program office. Put them on a one-page checklist, review it in your weekly leadership meeting, and assign each practice an owner. Keep the survey to three questions so it takes under a minute.
The risk in a small company is inconsistency. A founder who practices all five for a month and then disappears into a fundraise teaches the team that trust is seasonal. Pick a rhythm you can keep through a bad quarter, even if it is only one visit, one thank-you, and one open decision each week.
How can you tell whether trust is improving?
Ask the same three questions every month, anonymously, and track the trend. Try: "I trust leadership to be honest with me." "I understand how AI will affect my role." "My manager knows what I am working on and why it matters." Share the results with the whole company, along with one action you will take.
Watch behavior, too. Voluntary attrition, referral rates, and the number of problems raised early are all signals. If bad news reaches you sooner, trust is rising. At Upstart Wire, we would rather see a messy list of raised problems than a clean report from a team that no longer speaks up.
Conclusion
The 44-point gap in BCG's data is a reminder that sincerity is not the same as being believed. Leaders earn trust through repeated, visible behavior: specific thanks, time spent where work happens, real interest, shared decisions, and going first. None of it needs a budget.
Pick one practice this week and put it on your calendar. Name the person you will thank, the shift you will visit, or the decision you will open to the team. Then ask the three trust questions next month and see what moved.
