We’re excited to share that Stahla Services was recently featured on Enterprise Radio where our Co-owner, Erin Stahla, discussed how trust forms the essential foundation of effective leadership. During this insightful conversation with host Eric Dye, Erin explored the daily habits, transparent communication practices, and honest decision-making that build lasting trust with teams. Just as we ensure our restroom trailers arrive exactly as promised, leadership requires that same consistency between what we say and what we deliver.
What We Discussed: When Actions and Words Must Match
Trust fundamentally happens when your actions and words align, whether through an interview process, organic daily conversations, difficult discussions, or team meetings. The power of this alignment cannot be overstated. As Erin explained, distrust happens just as quickly when those elements don’t match up, and when that occurs, you’re in a world of hurt. The team starts to lose faith in their leader or in the organization itself.
The good news and the challenge is that leaders hold the power to build or break this trust. You want to make sure that whatever you’re saying is actually true. There will be times when you say something that’s true in that moment and then the situation changes, but the key is keeping track of those shifts in your head as you go. You need to circle back and acknowledge, “Hey, I know we said this, this situation did change, and so we had to update our approach to follow whatever that circumstance change was.”
As long as you’re keeping the team updated and in the loop when changes happen, trust can still flourish even during uncertainty. The critical factor is maintaining that communication throughout developing situations rather than letting team members discover changes on their own.
Real-World Impact: Transparency During Financial Challenges
Erin shared a powerful example of how transparency around tough decisions can actually increase trust rather than weaken authority. We went through a challenging financial period, and as a team we had to rally around that reality. The approach wasn’t to place blame but to acknowledge collective responsibility: it wasn’t going to be one person, one leader, or one team member who got us out of this situation. We had collectively arrived there through a series of decisions, so we would need to collectively work our way through it with a new series of decisions.
We started talking through the situation more and more transparently as time went on. There’s an important balance here—as a leader, you need to bear the brunt of the toughest things and carry the heaviest weight. That’s simply part of the job. But there are certain things where you want to be as open as possible in a way that creates trust without creating fear or anxiety in the team.
During that tougher financial time, we looped the team in by explaining, “Hey, you’re going to see some budget cuts or you’re going to see us cutting back in certain areas. Here’s why.” We asked the whole team to keep an eye on spending, but critically, we also gave them the upside—it’s going to look a little rough for all of us, we’re all going to be lacing up our shoes a little tighter every morning, but that discipline gets us to a place of organizational health.
Transparency requires walking a fine line. You want to be truthful, honest, and transparent, but you don’t want to create fear and anxiety by oversharing the weight that the leader needs to carry themselves. Always looping the team into the “why” proves invaluable during challenging times.
Understanding Daily Habits: Consistency Builds Dependability
Small, consistent actions demonstrate to your team that you’re dependable and reliable. When you set meetings, have the meetings. If you need to push a meeting back, be clear about it as soon as possible: “Hey, we need to reschedule this” or “Let’s push this back 30 minutes.” But you never miss a meeting or forget one as often as humanly possible.
Meetings provide excellent opportunities to establish trust—showing up prepared when you said you’d be there sends a powerful message. Even when team members reach out to you, getting back to them in a timely fashion proves helpful for building trust. The principle is straightforward: if you say something, do it.
That’s the biggest thing when it comes to building trust on a team. If you say you’re going to get something done, then do it. Or if you can’t accomplish it or it doesn’t make sense to accomplish that thing, let the team know why. This prevents the appearance that you forgot your commitment or chose not to follow through without explanation.
While everyone defaults to “communication is key,” when trust is the topic at hand, communication truly does carry the day. This same principle applies to how we operate with our customers—whether discussing ADA restroom trailers for accessibility needs or coordinating shower trailer deliveries for construction sites, we follow through on every commitment.
Accessibility & Capacity: Rebuilding Trust After Mistakes
What happens when you’ve dropped the ball or made a decision your team didn’t love? This represents one of the toughest challenges leaders face. Rebuilding trust is difficult, but it’s absolutely possible. There will be times when you’re in a position as a leader or manager where you have dropped the ball—it happens because we’re all human. Or you’re forced to make decisions that the team opposes, like tightening budgets or making cuts, but you still have to move forward because you see a bigger picture of how those decisions will help the business thrive, which ultimately means everyone in the business will thrive.
The path to rebuilding trust centers on telling the truth with great honesty and integrity. As long as team members understand that you’re making decisions for the greater good, many people can come around to that understanding even if they don’t enjoy the outcome. They can still grasp why things are happening.
When rebuilding trust, start with honesty: “Hey, I made a decision that isn’t very popular with the team. I understand that, and I understand why it wouldn’t be popular for these reasons. Here’s why we’re going to go ahead and make this decision.” Acknowledge that it seems odd to hear people say they don’t want something and then proceed with it anyway, but explain the reasoning. Ask everyone to pull together and trust each other during this time, with the understanding that in weeks, months, and years, the reasoning will become clearer.
Hopefully you’ve gained enough trust throughout your other interactions with the team that they understand you have their best interests in mind when making tougher decisions. One-on-one conversations and side conversations prove invaluable here. You can have a “rally the team” moment in a big meeting, but those individual conversations create deeper understanding. Acknowledge their perspective: “I understand that maybe this isn’t something you agree with, or in your eyes it looks like I dropped the ball. Let’s talk this through so we can come to an understanding.” You may not leave the room in agreement or on the same side of the issue, but at least you’ve created more understanding about why you’re doing what you’re doing.
The Technicals: Inviting Feedback Without Losing Authority
Leaders often worry that inviting feedback will diminish their authority or slow momentum, but the opposite proves true. You definitely want to cultivate an atmosphere where everyone can share their open, honest thoughts. This comes with an important caveat—this is a professional environment, so team members shouldn’t simply spew whatever’s on their mind at all times. That’s not a good practice to begin with, but you absolutely do want feedback.
If you’re making an operational decision that’s going to impact your team, it only makes sense that they’re part of the conversation before the rollout. Instead of dropping changes with “Boom, here’s the change,” it’s far more effective to have conversations leading up to that moment. Invite feedback by saying, “Hey, this is going to be a large change. What do you think of that? What are your pinch points as a person with that, and how can we work together to either go through this in a better way or just accept it’s going to be hard for a while and hunker down together?”
Inviting feedback never causes a person to lose authority or momentum. It actually creates momentum because you develop a more accurate picture of what the change needs to be or where the pinch points are. Creating a safe enough environment for your team to offer organic feedback—without sending out questionnaires, forms, or private surveys—proves incredibly valuable. It’s powerful when people feel secure enough to say, “Hey, this decision was made, I get that. But if I could push back on this for a second and let you know where some of the pain points are, I think this would be more effective for the team.”
Celebrate that feedback. Be grateful for their input by saying, “Hey, we might not be able to make all these changes, but I appreciate you thinking through this and I think we’re going to be able to implement some version of this.” This approach would never cause leaders to lose authority. It only creates more momentum and stronger team cohesion.
This principle of inviting input and building trust extends to how we work with our customers at Stahla Services. Whether you’re planning an event requiring combo trailers or need to understand how much it costs to rent a restroom trailer, we want your feedback and questions throughout the process.
As we’ve shared before, Grant and Erin Stahla are driven by a mission that goes beyond business. They are passionate about redefining portable sanitation through a company built on caring for people, delivering service excellence, and leading with faith. This includes their dedicated support of organizations like Love Justice International. This core commitment to integrity and service is woven into every interaction at Stahla Services.
We are deeply grateful to Eric Dye and the Enterprise Radio team for providing the platform to explore these essential leadership principles. As Erin emphasized during the interview, “Trust really happens when your actions and words match… if you say something, do it. That’s the biggest thing in my mind of how you can build trust on a team.” This philosophy of consistent follow-through and transparent communication shapes every interaction we have with our team members and customers alike.
Ready to experience the trust and reliability that comes from working with a company that does what it says? Get Your Personalized Quote Today! or call us at 844-900-3190. Let us show you how consistency, transparency, and genuine care make all the difference in your event or project success.