By Kerry Frank October 17, 2025
Lately, I’ve received several emails from people who feel stuck in their careers. They tell me they feel unseen in meetings or unheard in the boardroom.
If that’s you, let me ask: Who do you see?
Who else in the room challenges the norm, asks the hard questions, or stands up for what they believe in? Seek them out. Grab coffee. Build connections. Sometimes your next step up the ladder comes from walking beside someone who’s climbing too.
When I worked with Fortune 500 companies, I watched this play out in real time. People who normally didn’t collaborate were suddenly thrown together to innovate. At first, it was clunky. Everyone wanted to be heard and protect their department’s priorities.
But over time, something shifted. The teams who started meeting for coffee, lunch, or just genuine conversation began to trust each other. And when trust entered the room, innovation followed.
I saw it again and again. The airlines that built authentic relationships were always the ones leading the next wave of change.
Because when you build trust, defenses drop. People listen differently. You start solving for the whole, not just the part.
Stephen Covey said it best in Speed of Trust, “The speed of business moves faster when trust is present”. Some of the biggest business deals in history were made not on contracts, but on relationships between leaders who trusted one another.
So show up. Be authentic. Be genuine. Fight for what you believe in. And when you do it with trust and integrity, everything accelerates, our work, your influence, and your ability to make real change.