The 3 Step Trust Battery Method Every Founder and Leader Should Learn

Years ago at Google, I came across Project Aristotle, their deep dive into what makes teams high performing.

The finding surprised almost no one and helped almost everyone: the highest performing teams have strong psychological safety.

Translation: they trusted each other.

I thought about that recently in a session with a founder client. He's building a company and, for the first time, a culture from zero. Trust came up while he was negotiating terms with his cofounder, and the room got tense fast.

That tension isn't a red flag. It's just what happens when two people bring their own histories into a high stakes partnership. Coaching gave him a safe place to get curious instead of defensive, so we asked a simple question: what does trust actually mean to each of you?

Enter my favorite tool for this, the trust battery, a concept credited to Shopify founder Tobi Lütke.

Everyone starts a relationship with some baseline charge, say 50 percent. Every interaction either tops it up or drains it. At 100 percent, that's when collaboration stops feeling like work and starts feeling like momentum.

Why does a metaphor move the needle here? Because it gives people words for something they usually just feel and never say.

If you're building a partnership, a leadership team, or managing a room full of strong personalities, try this:

1. Name what charges your battery to 100 percent. Punctuality, follow through, honest communication, a track record of delivering- whatever it is for you.

2. Ask the other person what charges theirs. Most leaders assume trust looks the same for everyone. It almost never does. This has to be a real conversation, not guesswork, no matter who holds more power in the room.

3. Check in often. Agree on the language together, and flag a dip early instead of letting your batteries quietly drain.

   
   

My founder client and his cofounder used exactly this. One tense negotiation became a conversation about what each of them actually needed to feel secure, and their battery started charging back up instead of exploding or draining.

Difficult conversations don't get easier. They just get more workable, with the right tools, the right language, and a little bravery.

We all have conflict and difficult conversations -

✨How do you build trust on your team?✨