Quick Win: How to rebuild trust at work when its broken

Trust doesn’t rebuild with one big apology. It grows back quietly - through small, consistent moments that prove you mean what you say. 

In this Quick Win episode, my teammate Aly Solly and I share how we rebuilt trust after one of Inventium’s toughest years. Together, we discovered that trust isn’t restored overnight - it’s rebuilt in small, deliberate ways that show care, honesty, and vulnerability. 

Aly and I discuss: 

• The moment a leadership wellbeing survey sparked real vulnerability 

• Why openness - when it feels uncomfortable - can transform a relationship 

• How showing up consistently matters more than grand gestures 

• The “ugly cry” call that turned a breaking point into a rebuild 

• What to do when you’re trying to repair trust at work 

KEY QUOTES

“Trust doesn’t hinge on one big apology or grand gesture. It’s built through the small stuff - the check-ins, the honesty, the willingness to be vulnerable.” 

“You don’t wait for the perfect moment. You just start showing up consistently and with care.” 

Connect with Aly Solly on LinkedIn. 

Listen to the full conversation with Aly here. 

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ 

Connect with me on the socials: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanthai 

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe 

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. 

Get in touch at [e-mail] 

Credits: 
Host: Amantha Imber 
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Trust doesn't snap back overnight.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It rebuilds in small moments, not in big declarations. When
Ali Solly first joined the team at Inventium, she and
I barely crossed paths. And for months, it was, you know, polite,
professional conversation. But then, slowly, through a series of small moments,
a tough conversation here, a vulnerable admission there, something shifted.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
By the end of this quick win, you will.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
See why rebuilding trust rarely happens in one big breakthrough,
but in the quiet consistency of how you show up
every day. And it all started with a few moments
that changed everything.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Welcome to How I Work, a show about habits, rituals,
and strategies for optimizing your day.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm your host, Dr. Amantha Imber.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Building trust, I know, was really important. And I think
it's fair to say there were probably a few moments
for you where trust was built between the two of us,
because as context, we didn't have a lot to do
with each other for probably your first, I don't know,
six to nine months at Inventium. And I know that

(01:25):
one key moment for you was in August last year,
where you were you're accredited in a particular wellbeing survey.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
What's it called?

Speaker 4 (01:35):
The GLWS.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
The GLWS, which stands for the Global Leadership Wellbeing Survey.
And I think we were thinking of using it with
clients and that led to me just being a guinea
pig and you've done many debriefs in this survey.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Can you tell me what happened in.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
On that day where we got together and we got
together in person for you to debrief me on my results.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, I remember.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
So the survey in itself is very thorough and it
goes through all aspects of work and home life. So,
you know, it's an incredibly vulnerable position for you to
put yourself in. So I was quite aware of the
fact that we hadn't necessarily built up that trust as well.
And I remember at one point when we started diving

(02:22):
in and you said, I don't know how much to
give because how much I need to keep my sort
of position here and that professionalism and how much I
need to give over to the survey and these results
and being open and honest. And you said, I'm just
going to go for it because I'm only going to
get out what I put in. And at that moment,

(02:46):
I think it just opened up Vulnerability for you, vulnerability
for me as well to just be present with you
with that. And I think that moment was a real
starting point for that really strong trust that then continued
to go to where we are today. But yeah, that moment,

(03:07):
I think, had you been guarded through that and not
really shared openly and honestly, I would have known and
I would have been like, okay, this is just us now.
We're just going to skirt around the edges as we
all have been doing for six months. But I think
that really showed great faith in me and absolutely more
faith in you from my perspective as well.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I know that another pivotal point happened in the back
half of the year where you had a massive workload
because the people that had left and been retrenched, you
picked up quite a lot of work. And there was
a moment where another teammate threw a whole lot of

(03:48):
work on you, even though they probably could have made
the time to do it themselves. Tell me about what
happened there.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, this was a real low point. I'd actually forgotten
about it till recently because I put it in the
back of my mind. But yeah, you're right. I was
just swamped with work. It was the week leading up
to Christmas as well. So there's already high stakes in
getting things across the line. And- had been working collaboratively.
And so I had thought, we're going to get this

(04:16):
done together across the line. And having looked in, you know,
there was a message come through that I'm not going
to have time to look at that. And then when
I went in to see what was taking precedent, you know,
whether I can help out with that as well, we're
all just hands on deck at that moment to get

(04:37):
things through for clients before Christmas. And They'd chosen to
go on a client's end of year party extravaganza. And
I think it was two things. I was floored by, again,
that individualistic approach to work that is not the fundamentals

(04:57):
of how we work together at Inventium and especially now.
But it had become the way that we were working
with individual goals and individual priorities. But the, yeah, the
other thing was I was just, I had zero capacity
and I was just thinking, what am I going to do?
I literally cannot do this. I'm going to have to
work 24 hours a day. I think because of all

(05:18):
of the moments and it was those small consistent moments
over time, it wasn't one thing that led me to think,
I really trust Samantha. it was all of these check-in
moments and being vulnerable and honest with you. I decided
to pick up the phone. You were in Noosa at
the time. So it was sort of this moment of.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Going, I can't call her.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
But I had reached the bottom and I just ugly
cried to you on the phone and thought, you know,
I never thought I would be doing this. And Yeah,
it had got to that point and I was like,
I just can't do this. And you jumped on and
helped me for that day to get over it, you know,
to get that work done. But that was, yeah, incredibly

(06:00):
low point and probably a real reflection of where we
had got to as pretty much the lowest point, I think,
as a team.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
What struck me listening back to this moment was how
trust doesn't hinge on one big apology or grand gesture.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
It is built or rebuilt through the small stuff. The check-ins,
the honesty, the willingness to be vulnerable when it feels
really uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
So the next time you're trying.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
To repair a strained relationship at work, don't wait for
the perfect moment. Just start showing up consistently and with care.
If you want to go deeper into how Ali and
I rebuilt the team's trust after that tough year, listen.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
To the full episode linked to in the show notes.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
You hit follow on your podcast app to be alerted
when new episodes drop.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the Wurundjeri people, part of the Kulin Nation.