Bethel professor and alumnus co-author book on building trust in remote workplaces

“Societal trust is at nearly ground zero. We don’t trust the news, our politicians, our schools, our media, or our church,” says David Horsager ’95, GS’07, a leading scholar on trust. That erosion of trust is also affecting the workplace. As CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, Horsager has advised and trained leaders at some of the world’s most respected organizations, including Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Toyota, Zoom, MIT, the New York Yankees, and even global governments. “With more and more companies offering flexible work environments, hybrid schedules, or entirely remote options, we’ve found that senior leaders who were completely comfortable and very good at building a trusted culture in person are struggling in this new territory of displaced workforces,” he says.  

But—there’s hope. And it’s why Horsager has teamed up with Professor of Communication Studies Peggy Kendall to explore how leaders can build trust in remote settings in their new book Trust at a Distance.

The backstory

In 2023, Kendall and Triston Thomas ’23 were recipients of the Edgren Scholar award. With this scholarship, they researched how remote workers really feel in the virtual workplace and what assumptions managers can’t make. 

“We heard one story after another of how remote managers did things—usually completely unaware of what they were doing—that communicated ‘I am too busy’ and ‘You are not important,’” says Kendall. “These stories impacted me. There were frustrated employees who were never sure how they were doing, micromanaged employees who felt trapped, and marginalized employees who felt alone and disconnected, trying to find ways to do their jobs without any support or encouragement.”

Horsager’s interest in trust and its impact on leadership and organizations began during his graduate work in organizational leadership at Bethel. “I began to find patterns in my research—patterns that funneled into eight different and distinct traits that all good leaders possessed: clarity, compassion, character, competency, commitment, connection, contribution, and consistency,” he says. He now travels around the globe speaking and advising leaders and organizations on building these eight “pillars of trust.” 

During Kendall’s research, she bumped into Horsager, a Bethel colleague and friend, at a coffee shop. As they caught up, they realized their research was deeply aligned. “We were working with individuals struggling with the same issues, but we were each coming from different perspectives,” says Kendall. “David had been inundated with CEOs and executives struggling with the remote workplace. I had been immersed in the stories of their workers.”

Horsager agrees: “She and I had both been seeing a tremendous need for a resource that helped and encouraged leaders to build trust in remote environments. And we share a bias toward action and practicality.” 

Together, they set out to figure out more about how and why trust must be built differently in the virtual workplace and began talking with executives about what they saw as opportunities and workable strategies.

The book

Kendall says Horsager brings in the voice of the organizational leader. “Before this project, it was very easy for me to dictate what leaders should do. Now I see the pressures most remote managers are faced with,” she says. “Most ‘quick and easy’ recommendations are not necessarily easy or right for every remote manager. As a result, we tried to take a leader’s perspective in the book. We ended up changing and nuancing some of our recommendations.”

They worked to provide leaders tools for personal application, filling the book with self assessment surveys, a discussion guide, and quick and easy tips from other organizational leaders. 

“There are actions leaders can take to not just survive, but to thrive,” says Horsager. The book focuses on six strategies: amplify communication, clarify direction, build predictability, redefine accountability, create connections, and equip your people.  

Hope for the future

More than five years have passed since COVID-19 pushed companies to go remote, and more and more companies are implementing some version of returning to the office. Horsager says that’s because when it comes to building a high-trust culture, we assume that in-person is best. 

“However, there are so many benefits to working—and leading—remotely that I’ve really changed my mind about this in recent years,” he says. “In some situations, remote can be just as good or even better! We just need the leadership and structure to help make it that way.” 

One of the biggest benefits is autonomy. “More control for the employee automatically results in less control for the organization, but if you can tie the definition of a job well done to results, then you will be able to give your employees more autonomy in how they get their work done,” he explains. “Basically, when we aren’t being constantly evaluated, we feel freer to take risks and share new ideas, are less afraid of failing or looking foolish, and can be more honest about challenges and mistakes. The key is to tie accountability to results.”

Even if the majority of leaders say they want workers back in the office, a 2024 study by the U.S. Career institute says that over 95% of workers want to work remotely at least part of the time, and 54% want to work remotely full-time. “What that says to me is there is a disconnect. At the heart of that disconnect is lack of trust. When leaders don’t trust their workers to do the job when they are out of sight and when workers don’t trust that their leaders have their backs, no amount of return-to-office policies are going to create healthy, trusting cultures,” says Kendall. “Healthy, dynamic organizational cultures can function online. It isn't easy, but we have seen it happen. We have seen collaboration, innovation, support, engagement, and motivation increase in virtual settings and in face-to-face settings. Trust isn't about where it happens, it is about how it happens.”

Trust at a Distance will be released November 18, 2025, by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

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