TREE Model Part 1 - Trust

At Surface Deep we work hard to help our clients mitigate the risk of burnout at the individual, team and organisational levels. Burnout is the end game when we don't pay attention to our needs and ways of being. We need to build trust, resilience, empathy and equity into the system from strategy to everyday behaviours to ensure healthy, sustainable growth (just like a tree). For next the four weeks we will focus on each of the four elements of TREE, and how each supports the development of strong, stable, connected leaders, and teams.

Cultivating Trust: The Root System of Leadership

In any thriving ecosystem, growth begins underground. The same is true for leaders and teams where Trust, Resilience, Empathy, and Equity form a balanced system for growth, and where trust sits firmly in the roots. It is the soil in which cultures flourish, teams find stability, and leaders build the foundations for long-term success.

Trust isn’t a soft concept or a “nice to have.” It is a strategic imperative. Without it, organisations may grow quickly but never sustainably; they sway under pressure and topple in storms. With trust, borne of psychological safety, connection, and strong relationships, leaders and teams will be strong, grounded and able to develop the confidence to stretch, innovate, and weather disruption without losing their stability.

Why Trust Must Come First

Trust is the permission slip for creativity, risk-taking, and ownership. When people believe in their leaders and each other, they dare to do more. They speak truth, share ideas freely, and step outside their comfort zones. This psychological safety strengthens the entire root system of a culture.

In contrast, in teams and organisations without trust, culture can become defensive and transactional. People protect information rather than share it. They focus on self-preservation instead of collective success. Energy that could fuel innovation or growth is spent on second-guessing, interpreting politics, or bracing for blame.

Great leaders don’t demand trust — they earn it through consistency, transparency, and integrity.

The Roots That Hold the Tree Steady

Imagine the TREE model as a living organism in its wider ecosystem. Just as a tree draws water and nutrients through its roots, leadership draws strength from trusted relationships across its internal and external environment: colleagues, customers, communities, and stakeholders.

When storms hit — market volatility, organisational change, societal turbulence, or personal pressure — trust acts like deep, intertwined roots holding firm beneath the surface. Teams who trust one another respond to challenge with clarity and purpose rather than chaos and fear. They bend without breaking.

How Leaders Build Trust Daily

Trust is not built in grand gestures; it grows through everyday behaviours. When leaders:

• Communicate openly, especially when answers are not yet clear

• Show humility and acknowledge mistakes

• Act consistently with values and promises

• Invite authentic dialogue rather than demand agreement

• Prioritise collective success over personal ego

…trust deepens. Just like tending soil, trust requires patience and care — and, occasionally, re-nourishment when the ground is depleted.

Trust as the Foundation for Growth

Trust alone doesn’t grow a tree — roots must support a strong trunk of purposeful action and resilience, and ultimately nurture branches of empathy and equity. But without trust at the foundation, the tree cannot stand tall, withstand storms, or grow toward its full potential.

This series begins with trust because every other leadership element depends on it. Trust enables resilience. It fuels empathy. It makes equity meaningful and real. It turns shared vision into collective movement.

As leaders, our challenge is not simply to plant the seed of trust, but to protect and nourish it — so our people, our organisations, and our wider communities can grow with us.

In the next part of the series, we will explore resilience — the second root of the TREE model — and how leaders can build strength that flexes, adapts, and endures.