Your policies are not failing because of the 5% who might abuse them, but because they quietly erode trust with the 95% who are doing their best work. When disruption hits, control-heavy policies put managers in an impossible spot and make your top performers feel punished instead of trusted.​

Mitchell Jeffery, founder of Ember Collective, helps organizations redesign HR policies from control-based to trust-centered frameworks that actually support modern work. In this episode, he and host Kim Bohr break down why rigid attendance and one-size-fits-all rules damage credibility, and how reframing “fair” vs. “equitable” can transform the employee experience.​

Mitchell Jeffery and Kim Bohr explore:

• Why policies built for the 5% quietly alienate the 95%—and how to spot it in your organization.​

• The fair vs. equitable framework for attendance, PTO, holidays, and bereavement.​

• How return-to-office mandates and point-based attendance systems erode trust at the manager level.​

• The four policies to reform first if you want to build trust resilience before the next disruption.​

For executives, CHROs, and senior leaders who want to build high-trust, high-performance organizations, this episode offers a practical starting point: begin with policy, not another culture campaign.

Your leadership skills vanish when fight-or-flight kicks in. Learn how to build trust when your brain screams "run." For executives facing high-stakes pressure.

Key Takeaways:

• Why technical competence is useless if you can't access it under pressure

• The exact moment manager trust collapses—and how to prevent it

• Strategic NeuroRegulation: training your nervous system like a musician trains their fingers

• Data: Organizations with self-regulating leaders handle disruption 6.5× better

Harry Pickens conquered stage fright performing with jazz legends, then proved his neuroscience framework through caregiving, cancer, and long COVID. Founder, Strategic NeuroRegulation Institute.

Learn More: → Download Trust Study: sparkeffect.com/trust-study

71% of employees experienced a crisis in the past 24 months, but only 36% of organizations emerged with strengthened trust. The difference? Leaders who understand that rebuilding trust requires listening, not fixing.

When Tammy Green became the third CEO in three years, 160 employees were in survival mode. Physicians were leaving. The board said, "Everything's broken." Most leaders would have arrived with a 90-day turnaround plan. Tammy made a harder choice: she stopped talking and started listening.

The culprit? Leaders who confuse action with progress. Without authentic listening and trust reserves, organizations break under pressure rather than bend.

Tammy Green and Kim Bohr explore:

• The listening tour that changed everything, observation over immediate action
• Why trust in managers is both stronger and more fragile than organizational trust
• Building trust reserves before a crisis hits, not during
• The three leadership superpowers: presence, listening to learn, and curiosity

Resources: Connect with Tammy at tammygreenconsulting.com

A practical framework for leaders rebuilding trust from survival mode to high performance.