Dr. David Horsager: Business Strategy
David Horsager helps organizations build high-trust leadership cultures through proven trust strategies that improve engagement, collaboration, and long-term business performance.
Quick Facts:
- International authority on leadership and organizational trust
- CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute
- Bestselling author of The Trust Edge
- Creator of the Enterprise Trust Index™
- Formats:
- Keynote speaker, leadership consultant, executive coach, and trust strategist
- Audiences:
- Corporate leaders, executives, HR professionals, leadership teams, business conferences, organizational development initiatives, and culture transformation programs.
- Outcomes:
- Build high-trust cultures that strengthen organizational performance.
- Improve communication, engagement, and leadership effectiveness.
- Equip leaders with practical trust-building strategies.
- Travels from: Saint Paul, MN
- **Fee range: $20,001 - $35,000
Talent Services
Keynote Topics:
The Trust Edge®
How Top Leaders and Organizations Drive Business Results through Trust
Trust is a fundamental, bottom-line issue. Without it, leaders lose teams, salespeople lose sales, and organizations lose reputation, retention of good people, relationships, and revenue.
But with trust, individuals and organizations enjoy greater creativity, productivity, freedom, and results. Through David’s industry leading research, The Trust Outlook®, and firsthand experience working with the world’s highest performing organizations, David reveals how top leaders and organizations drive business results to become the most trusted in their industry.
Trusted Leader: 8 Pillars that Drive Results
Without trust, leaders and organizations fail, but with trust leaders get followed, the trusted suppliers get bought from, and the trusted business outperforms the competition.
Through industry leading research, The Trust Outlooks®, and firsthand experience working with high-performing organizations around the world, David reveals how top leaders and organizations drive business results to become the most trusted in their industry.
Talent Short Bio
David Horsager is an internationally recognized leadership expert, keynote speaker, and authority on organizational trust whose work has transformed how leaders, teams, and businesses build high-performing cultures. As the CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, David helps organizations strengthen trust to improve engagement, collaboration, innovation, and measurable business results.
A bestselling author and trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies, David is best known for his influential book The Trust Edge, which outlines the eight pillars of trust and provides actionable strategies for building stronger leadership and organizational effectiveness. His research demonstrates that trust is the foundational driver behind productivity, retention, teamwork, communication, and long-term organizational success.
David is also the creator of the Enterprise Trust Index™, a proprietary assessment tool designed to measure trust within organizations and identify barriers impacting performance and culture. In addition, he directs The Trust Outlook, one of the nation’s leading trust studies focused on workplace leadership and organizational trends.
Holding advanced credentials including MA, CS
Talent Videos
Trust Is Your Organization’s Hidden Issue — David Horsager on Why It All Comes Down to Trust
A compelling keynote snippet revealing how trust not turnover, culture, or sales is the real root of organizational challenges and how clear leadership bridges that gap.
Video Summary & Key Moments
Dr. David Horsager opens with clarity: “Your biggest issue might not be what you think it is. At the core it’s always a trust issue.” He emphasizes that the primary question always being asked isn’t if people like you, it’s “Can I trust you?”
He spotlights frontline leaders—those who drive retention and lower attrition and stresses they need trust-building tools. Horsager insists that no matter the surface problem culture breakdowns, engagement dips, leadership transitions—the root cause is consistently trust. Elevating other programs won’t work until trust is the foundation.
To address the challenge, he introduces his signature solution: the 8-Pillars of Trust. He underscores that clarity, the simplest of communication wins trust, whereas ambiguity and overcomplexity erode it. He invites leaders to elevate their trust by embracing clarity and applying the full trust framework.
Key Moments
00:00 – 00:20 — Introduction: Most organizational challenges boil down to a lack of trust.
00:20 – 00:40 — The real leadership test: “Can I trust you?” is more critical than likability.
00:40 – 01:00 — Emphasis on frontline leaders as trust champions who shape retention and culture.
01:00 – 01:20 — Trust is the root problem, not surface-level issues like turnover or sales.
01:20 – 01:40 — Solution teaser: use the 8-Pillars of Trust framework, beginning with clarity.
01:40 – End — Call to clarity: simplicity and transparent communication foster trust; complexity undermines it.
What’s trust got to do with it? | David Horsager | TEDxUMN
A TEDxUMN talk that shows why trust is the root issue behind culture, retention, and results, and how to build it deliberately.
Video Summary & Key Moments
David Horsager opens with headline after headline to make a single point: the throughline is trust. The real question audiences ask of leaders is not “Do I like you?” but “Can I trust you?” He contrasts common myths with nuances. Trust can be built quickly in crisis as on 9/11. Transparency is valuable, yet confidentiality can also be trusted. He returns to his Minnesota farm roots and a roadside honor stand to illustrate how trust creates speed, lowers cost, and builds loyalty.
Horsager shares research and field experience that a lack of trust is the biggest expense in life and business. As trust rises, output, morale, retention, productivity, innovation, and loyalty rise, while cost and stress fall. He cites examples where breaches of trust create outsized loss, reinforcing that trust is measurable and material.
To answer how to build it, he introduces the 8 Pillars. Clarity is trusted while ambiguity and needless complexity erode trust. Competency matters, because character without capability still fails. Commitment builds confidence, illustrated by Harley-Davidson’s sustained focus. Consistency earns brand trust, as sameness signals reliability. He emphasizes that rebuilding trust is not an apology; it is making and keeping commitments over time.
He closes with a mutton busting story from a small-town rodeo to show trust as a choice. Individuals get better first, then families and communities. What does trust have to do with it Everything.
Key Moments
00:00–01:10 Headlines and the central theme. Trust underpins every question and issue.
01:10–02:20 Kids and everyday trust. Humor sets up practical lenses.
02:20–04:10 Myths and tensions. Fast trust in crisis. Transparency versus confidentiality.
04:10–05:30 Research focus. Trust as the unique advantage of top leaders and organizations. David Horsager
05:30–07:30 Farm honor stand story. Speed, cost savings, loyalty created by trust.
07:30–09:10 Data patterns. When trust increases, results and morale rise; costs and stress drop.
09:10–10:10 Everyday costs of breaches. Locked mailboxes and the tax of time.
10:10–10:50 The 8 Pillars overview. Trust is the leading indicator. David Horsager
10:50–11:50 Pillar 1: Clarity. People trust the clear, not the ambiguous. David Horsager
11:50–12:30 Pillar 2: Competency. Be fresh, relevant, capable. David Horsager
12:30–13:20 Pillar 3: Commitment. Leaders who stick in adversity earn trust. Harley case note. David Horsager
13:20–14:10 Pillar 4: Consistency. Sameness builds brand trust. David Horsager
14:10–15:00 Rebuilding trust. Not apology alone; make and keep commitments.
15:00–17:10 Mutton busting story. Courage, discernment, and choosing whom to trust.
17:10–18:00 Final takeaway. Individuals improve first. What’s trust got to do with it Everything.
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