Your employees have been hinting for a few weeks that they’d like a little more in their paycheck. You understand their wish, but you also wish they would understand that now is not the time for raises. And so, you avoid all conversations about money and hope there’s no turnover because you can’t afford that, either.
Read “Talk to Me Nice: The Seven Trust Languages for a Better Workplace” (July 2025, Flatiron Books) by workplace consultant Minda Harts, and you’ll know what to say and how to say it.
Five years ago, Minda Harts had what was, to her, a dream job. She was, basically, autonomous—the only East Coast employee of a West Coast firm, taking care of her job and any clients who might visit the Big Apple. Harts knew she was trusted; her employers wholeheartedly indicated it. They didn’t tell her much else, however, and when she asked to take her career to the next level with better wages or a promotion, they gave her a big fat sort-of-maybe. She was only looking for what she felt she was due. They glossed over her concerns; she turned in her resignation.
Employers, if you can’t come up with more cash or a corner office, what can you offer? Trust, says Harts. Pure and simple, employees want trust. And the way to gain their trust is to use “the seven workplace trust languages.”
If you’ve got Black or LGBTQ employees, they want your sensitivity to the unique issues they face at work. In good times and bad, speaking to them with as much transparency as possible goes a long way. Security helps your employees feel safe on the job, both physically and mentally. Act, don’t just talk, to demonstrate your words. Be willing to give positive and kindly negative feedback on a regular basis. Acknowledge a job well done, a work anniversary, or a hard task completed. Follow through to make sure your employees can feel confident that you’re on this.
And then, says Harts, “watch trust grow!”
This should feel pretty commonsensical, but Harts suggests in a huge way that it’s not, that businesses from the top down need to relearn how to put trust back into the workplace. In “Talk to Me Nice,” she explains how. Never mind the kerfuffle about DEI. The fact is, today’s workplaces can still be quite diverse and that plays big in this book.
Harts shows why trust is key for happy employees and for healthy retention, and how it matters in every kind of workplace. Her stories are a bit scattershot, but they’re all encompassing. She uses real-life examples to show trust-making in action and what happens if trust is lacking. That can be both helpful and cautionary. Readers will greatly appreciate the relevance built into those tales.
This is an excellent book for C-suiters, managers, and supervisors, but it’s also a good book for an up-and-coming company star. Read “Talk to Me Nice” and get ready to raise the roof.
