What female leadership teaches us about trust and healthy environments

By Fernanda Antonelli

We live in a time when complexity is no longer the exception but the rule. Volatile, interdependent environments marked by uncertainty require organizations to go beyond the ability to make quick decisions. They require leaders capable of creating conditions for people to thrive even when not all the answers are available. In this context, trust emerges as one of the greatest competitive advantages.

Companies recognized as great places to work share a common trait: high levels of trust between leaders and teams. Trust sustains engagement, strengthens the sense of belonging, and creates environments where people feel safe to contribute ideas, question paths, and propose improvements.

It is also trust that allows autonomy without losing alignment, enabling planned delegation to accelerate learning and create fertile environments for people development and, consequently, business evolution.

In everyday practice, the positive impact generated by the quality of relationships is clear. After all, trust is not built through discourse, and high-performance environments are definitely not the product of formal policies, but of the quality of daily interactions between leadership and teams.

Women and the building of trust

If trust is a central asset for operating in complex environments, it is worth observing which leadership styles tend to cultivate it consistently. Studies on gender diversity indicate that women in leadership positions often adopt more collaborative approaches, with greater emphasis on listening, consensus-building, and systemic thinking.

Global research conducted by McKinsey & Company, in partnership with LeanIn.Org, in the study Women in the Workplace 2024, shows, for example, that women leaders are rated more highly by their teams in behaviors associated with inclusive leadership.

We are talking about active listening, support for development, promotion of psychological safety, and collaboration. It is important to highlight: this is not a biological trait, but behavioral patterns developed throughout professional trajectories that have required—and still require—negotiation, mediation, and the building of legitimacy.

On this International Women’s Day, I propose a reflection: what can we learn from this leadership style? How can we translate active listening, consensus-building, and systemic thinking into consistent organizational practices? And, above all, how can we expand these attributes by incorporating them into culture and leadership development models?

Female leadership, in this sense, is not just a diversity agenda. It is a strategic lever to strengthen cultures based on trust, psychological safety, and shared responsibility. When we expand the presence of women in decision-making positions, we also expand leadership repertoires that foster more collaborative and sustainable environments.

The anatomy of trust

I cannot fail to mention here the approach of American researcher Brené Brown, who deepens the concept of trust in her work on courageous leadership. She proposes the so-called “Anatomy of Trust,” summarized in the acronym BRAVING: Boundaries, Reliability, Accountability, Vault, Integrity, Non-judgment, and Generosity. The model reinforces that trust is not abstract; it materializes in observable and repeated behaviors over time.

When we analyze these elements, we see strong convergence with attributes often present in more collaborative and inclusive leadership styles. Leading with trust requires coherence, clarity, and courage—competencies increasingly demanded of those in strategic positions.

For HR Directors and CHROs, this agenda is essential. The next frontier of leadership development will be to form leaders capable of generating trust in increasingly complex environments.

This implies revisiting models centered on command and control, structuring development paths that value relational competencies as much as technical ones, supporting and accelerating the presence of female leaders in strategic spaces, and promoting cultures of psychological safety where active listening is the norm, not the exception. It also means designing organizational dynamics that strengthen bonds, not just processes.

Leading in complexity is, essentially, leading through connection. And connection is always built through trust. This March, more than celebrating women, we should learn from them. Female leadership reminds us that trust is a daily practice, built through listening, coherence, and care for relationships. Truly admired organizations are those that have the courage to humanize leadership and strengthen bonds. And HR plays a strategic role in paving this path and sustaining this transformation.

Fernanda Antonelli is People Director at Horiens, a company of the Novonor Group.