Q: What are the best ways to build trust so team members believe in our direction and want to stay long-term?
A: If you want to build a thriving landscape business, trust isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a necessity. Your team needs to believe in your leadership, the company’s stability and their future within your organization. Without trust, you’ll struggle to retain top talent and attract new team members who can help take your business to the next level.
How do you build trust and communicate a compelling vision that keeps the team engaged and committed? Here are three strategies that we’ve seen drive results across the most successful companies in our ACE Peer Groups.
Cast the vision, but make it personal
It’s not enough to have a five-year plan laminated on a wall. Your vision has to live and breathe within your company’s culture. You can’t just talk about growth or culture from 30,000 feet — you must bring it down to the ground level where your team operates every day.
Team members want to know: “Where are we going, and why should I care?” But even more importantly, they’re asking, “Do I have a place in that future?” If you’re not answering that, you’re missing a major opportunity to build internal trust.
Action step: Make vision casting a rhythm, not a one-time event. Use quarterly state-of-the-company addresses to communicate progress toward big goals, and in team meetings, translate those goals into what they mean for each department. Sit down one-on-one with key team members and show them the link between their role and the broader mission. When the team can see the straight line from their work to the company’s future, it builds trust and ownership.
Prioritize transparency and open communication
One of the fastest ways to erode trust is to keep your team in the dark. Lack of communication breeds fear and disconnect. Transparency isn’t about oversharing every financial detail; it’s about being honest and clear.
Teams want to know what’s going well, what’s not and how the company plans to address challenges. Even when the news isn’t great, being upfront builds credibility. When leaders are quiet, people start filling in the blanks — usually not in your favor.
Action step: Create a communication cadence and stick to it. Monthly town halls, weekly team check-ins and even a short Friday message from leadership can make a big difference. And don’t make it one-way; ask for questions and start conversations. The companies we work with that build the deepest trust are those where team members feel heard, not just spoken to.
Lead with actions, not just words
Trust dies when leaders say one thing and do another. Your team watches everything — what you reward, what you tolerate and how you show up when things get tough. If you preach accountability but make excuses for leaders at any level or talk about work-life balance while texting at 10 p.m., your credibility erodes fast.
Your values have to show up in the small moments, not just the big speeches. When leadership at every level walks the talk, it sends a powerful message: You can trust us to do what we say.
Action step: Audit your actions against your stated values. If “teamwork” is a core principle, are your leaders actively cross-collaborating and breaking down silos? If “professionalism” matters, are job sites tidy and uniforms consistent? These aren’t minor details; they’re signals. And in every interaction, you’re either reinforcing trust or chipping away at it.
The bottom line
Your company’s future isn’t built in a strategic planning session. It’s built every day in how you communicate, lead and show up. If you want to attract and retain top talent, you have to create an environment where people believe in the direction you’re going and trust the people leading them there.
At McFarlin Stanford, we’ve helped hundreds of landscape businesses build cultures of trust that drive loyalty, performance and growth. If you’re ready to level up how your team connects to your business’s vision, let’s talk.
Do you have a question for a future Ask McFarlin Stanford column? Submit it to info@mcfarlinstanford.com. We’re here to help you lead with purpose and grow with passion.
