How do you keep your team’s trust when even you aren’t sure how the story ends?
Guy Shalem has spent three decades in television and film. He created comedy series for Lionsgate and Lifetime, gave Jane Lynch her first leading TV role, and directed Betty White in her Emmy-nominated NBC series Off Their Rockers. His latest film, Monument, stars Academy Award winner Jon Voight.
He defines trust as “a process of earning and keeping and earning it again,” and Monument put that definition to the test. The film needed an iconic actor to elevate the cast, yet three casting directors on three continents searched without finding the right fit. Jon Voight finally signed on just days before cameras rolled, and Guy recognized that the pitch wasn’t his to make. Because the director had the relationship with Voight, Guy trusted him to make the call.
Guy calls filmmaking “controlled chaos.” In his view, the leaders who succeed in it aren’t the ones with every answer. They’re the ones people keep following through the uncertainty.
The story that stuck with me comes from outside the studio. Guy also runs Meeting of the Masters, an underground Hollywood dinner club where every guest contributes and executives come back to work in the kitchen. One night a guest leaned over and said the man washing the dishes looked a lot like Jon Murray, co-creator of The Real World and co-founder of Bunim/Murray Productions. It was Jon Murray.
“That humbling shock,” Guy told me, “is the best way I can describe the kind of humility and the kind of leadership that I like to bring to anything I produce.”
We also talked about:
Why “in Hollywood, nobody knows anything,” and why chaos is part of how great films get made.
Pushing ideas no studio would touch, and the agent who told him a pilot made for 10% of the usual budget would never find a champion.
The part of leadership he believes AI can’t replicate, drawn from a line in The Little Prince.
Listen to the full episode on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Guy describes leadership as walking your team through the desert. That’s close to the idea at the heart of Win Via Trust. A title doesn’t give you trust. You earn it along the journey, and you earn it again whenever the road gets hard.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Uncertainty doesn’t destroy trust. Ego does. Guy’s teams followed him through improvised scenes, shoestring budgets, and last-minute casting for two reasons. He stayed in the work alongside them, and he knew which moments belonged to someone else. The leaders people trust most aren’t the ones who never get lost. They’re the ones willing to wash the dishes.
"A king easily becomes a thief. A humbled king remains a bona fide king.” Guy Shalem
WINNING MOVES
Re-earn trust out loud. When a project wobbles, don’t assume your past credibility will carry you. Tell your team what you know, what you don’t know yet, and where you’re heading.
Take a turn at the unglamorous work. It shows your team that nobody is above the job, including you.
Give everyone a piece of ownership. Guy’s guests who cooked, lit candles, or arranged flowers enjoyed the meal more. People trust what they help build.
Send the right messenger. Guy let the director handle Jon Voight because the director had the track record with him. Before you hand off a high-stakes moment, use the Trustworthy Decision Matrix to weigh track record against how hard the assignment is.
Please view the interview on the Win Via Trust leadership podcast for great insights and advice.
If you want to dig deeper into the trust side of leadership, please read Win Via Trust or subscribe below for future Trust Lens newsletters.