Why Your Team Doesn’t Trust You
What happens when trust breaks down inside a startup, team, or organization?
In this interview, Doc John sits down with Dana Riker Jackson, founder of Riker Opportunity Institute, to talk about why trust is one of the most important, and most overlooked, factors in leadership, culture, communication, and organizational performance.
Dana shares the founder story behind Riker Opportunity Institute, including how she moved from sales and customer service training into leadership development, culture work, and eventually the trust model that now anchors so much of her work. Along the way, she explains why trust is not just a nice idea or soft skill. It is measurable, teachable, and directly connected to alignment, productivity, employee engagement, profitability, and the ability of leaders to create environments where people feel safe enough to speak honestly.
You’ll also learn the four core behaviors that build trust: acceptance, openness, congruence, and reliability. Dana explains how these behaviors build on each other, why leaders often miss them, and how founders can use them to strengthen teams, improve communication, reduce misalignment, and create healthier organizations.
The conversation also explores Dana’s work with U-ROC Leadership, a program designed to equip young people with the resilience, values, communication, leadership, business, and financial literacy skills they need to thrive. If you are building a startup, leading a team, or trying to create an organization where people can do meaningful work together, this conversation will help you see trust as a practical leadership discipline, not just a feeling.
Learn more about Dana Riker Jackson and Riker Opportunity Institute:
👉 Riker Opportunity Institute: https://rikeropportunityinstitute.com/
👉 You U-ROCLeadership: https://U-ROCLeadership.org/
👉 Connect with Dana Riker Jackson on LinkedIn
👉 Email: consultdana@rikeropportunityinstitute.com
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Why trust is often the root cause behind organizational dysfunction How Dana Riker Jackson built and evolved Riker Opportunity Institute
Why trust can be measured, developed, and practiced by leaders
The four core behaviors that build trust: acceptance, openness, congruence, and reliability
How trust, alignment, communication, and leadership culture affect performance
Highlights
00:00 – Why Trust Matters in Startups and Organizations
05:00 – Dana’s Founder Story and the Spark Behind Riker Opportunity Institute
10:30 – Starting From Scratch With 600 Contacts and a Survey
19:00 – Moving From Customer Service Training to Leadership Development
24:00 – Why Trust Became the Root Issue Behind Culture and Performance
29:00 – Measuring Trust With Validated Assessments
41:00 – The Origin of the Trust Model
45:00 – The Four Core Behaviors That Build Trust
1:23:00 – How Trust Opens Doors of Opportunity
1:29:00 – U-ROC Leadership and Investing in Young People Ready to Go Further? If you’re serious about starting a business, building a team, and becoming the kind of founder who can launch, grow, and thrive without losing trust along the way, this channel is designed to help you move from idea to action.
👉 Learn more about John Wilson and the Launch–Grow–Thrive Community for frameworks, coaching, accountability, and practical tools to turn your business idea into action: https://www.launch-grow-thrive.com/