Navigating the Crisis of Self-Trust in the Workplace: A Call to Action

There is a growing problem across workplaces, schools, and systems that we need to name honestly—without blaming, but without enabling.

Let’s look at the broader reality first. Gen Z and younger generations are entering the workforce shaped by a unique set of circumstances. They grew up with instant access to information at their fingertips, from Google searches to AI tools, and with templates and step-by-step guidance for nearly everything. At the same time, many have had fewer opportunities for real-world experience, trial and error, and independent problem-solving. The result? A growing crisis of self-trust—a struggle to rely on their own judgment and think critically in complex, ambiguous situations.

More and more individuals perceive the need for extreme hand-holding. Not support. Not guidance. But an active desire to be micromanaged—paired with little trust in their own common sense or ability to think critically.

This isn’t a personal flaw—it’s a generational reality. Understanding it is key for workplaces, schools, and systems aiming to develop skills, trust, and capability in the next wave of talent.

Where This Is Showing Up Most—and Why

This pattern is especially visible in younger generations entering the workforce, particularly those shaped during the COVID era. Many came of age in environments defined by:

• Constant disruption
• Reduced real-world exposure
• High structure
• Heavy external direction
  
  

At the same time, they’ve had unprecedented access to information—answers at their fingertips, step-by-step instructions, templates, and instant feedback.

What they’ve had far less access to? Experience.

And critical thinking cannot develop without experience.

The Enabling We Don’t Talk About Enough

Many well-meaning administrators, managers, data analysts, and people in leadership roles have genuinely tried to respond to what the data says people are experiencing in workplaces. They’ve seen the gaps, the burnout, and the disengagement—and they’ve attempted to meet those needs with support.

The problem is not intention. It’s interpretation.

People in these roles are often asked to translate complex human experiences into policies, processes, and cultural shifts—without being trained experts in human behavior, social development, or emotional regulation. So they do the best they can with the skills they have. And that’s where things tend to go sideways.

In the absence of strong social and emotional competency, responses often swing to one of two extremes:

• Overcompensating—adding more structure, more oversight, more accommodations, and more answers, unintentionally enabling dependence and reducing opportunities for growth.
• Under-supporting—defaulting to rigid, authoritarian expectations of “buck up or get out,” which shuts people down and drives disengagement, turnover, and quiet—or not-so-quiet—exits.
  
  

Neither extreme builds trust. Neither develops capability.

In one case, people are rescued out of thinking. In the other, they are dismissed out of belonging. Both weaken systems, cost our economy, and create unnecessary chaos that doesn’t have to exist.

The solution isn’t abandoning people to “figure it out.” And it’s not continuing to micromanage, rescue, or over-structure.

In an effort to:

• Prevent mistakes
• Avoid risk
• Move faster
• Be “supportive”
  
  

Systems and leaders have removed opportunities for people to think, decide, and learn on either end of the spectrum.

The Real Risk: Catastrophic Failures Increase Without Critical Thinking

Let’s be clear: When individuals lack critical thinking, social skills, and confidence in their judgment, the risk isn’t just inefficiency.

The likelihood of catastrophic or deeply unbeneficial failures increases—and not just in occurrence, but in:

• Frequency
• Duration
• Intensity
  
  

Ignoring this doesn’t protect people. And enabling it doesn’t make systems safer.

The Middle Ground We Actually Need

The solution is not abandoning people to “figure it out.”

And it’s also not continuing to micromanage, over-structure, and rescue.

The balance looks like this:

• Acknowledge that skill gaps exist
• Recognize the real risks of underdeveloped critical thinking
• Put safeguards in place to prevent catastrophic outcomes
• Teach critical thinking, social, and emotional skills explicitly
• Stop enabling the lack of trust and capability
  
  

Safeguards are temporary. Skill-building is the goal.

How Trust in Critical Thinking Is Actually Built

Trust doesn’t come from more information. It doesn’t come from more instructions. And it doesn’t come from being shielded from mistakes.

Trust is built through:

• Learning what critical thinking is
• Learning how to apply it
• Practicing it in real situations
• Participating in decisions
• Being exposed to uncertainty
• Experiencing outcomes
• Reflecting and adjusting over time
  
  

You cannot think your way into confidence. You have to experience your way into it.

This Is Not Just a “Young People” Problem

While this trend is especially visible in younger generations, older generations are not exempt. Many have learned to defer to authority, rigid rules, or external validation rather than judgment and discernment. Many have—unintentionally—modeled dependence rather than capability. This is a systemic issue, not a generational failure.

Critical Thinking Applies to Information, Too

We also need to apply critical thinking to the information we consume. When reading data, advice, or trends, we should be asking:

• Who is publishing this?
• What incentives do they have?
• What assumptions are being made?
• What social and emotional competencies are embedded—or missing?
• What context is absent?
  
  

Information without discernment doesn’t empower. It overwhelms.

The Bottom Line

We cannot cater our way out of this problem. Supporting generations who have had:

• Access to massive amounts of information
• High levels of enabling
• Limited lived experience
  
  

Does not mean accommodating insecurity. It means building skills, increasing exposure, and creating opportunities to practice real-world decision-making.

Without trust in our ability to navigate situations:

• Failures become inevitable
• Systems become fragile
• Growth stalls
  
  

The solution isn’t more hand-holding. It’s more experience, more skill-building, and more intentional responsibility.

And that starts with choosing to think—critically, intentionally, and humanly.

Where to Start? Here's a Practical Framework:

This is what skill-building actually looks like in real life, workplaces, families, and systems.

1. Learn the Fundamental Science First (Then Teach the Skills Explicitly)

Before we can expect people to think critically, we have to understand why the human brain does what it does—especially under stress, fear, and uncertainty.

Without this foundation, skill-building often fails because people interpret discomfort as danger rather than growth.

This means first learning:

• The fundamental science of the human experience—how the brain is wired for survival, not clarity
• Why fear, insecurity, and threat responses reduce openness to new information
• How stress narrows thinking and increases dependence on external direction
• What gets in the way of learning, experimenting, and experiencing
  
  

Once people understand what’s happening inside them, they can work with their brains instead of against them.

Then, teach critical thinking skills explicitly:

• How to assess context
• How to weigh options
• How to tolerate uncertainty
• How to make decisions without perfect information
  
  

Science builds insight. Skills build capability. Experience builds trust. That’s the order that works.

2. Reduce Instructions, Increase Reflection

Ask questions like:

• “What do you think is most important here?”
• “Can you identify what is within your control?”
• "Can you identify what is out of your control?"
• “Data is information that needs interpretation - What information actually matters?”
  
  

3. Normalize Non-Catastrophic Mistakes

Mistakes are not failures—they are data. Growth requires exposure, not protection. Learn in supervised and controlled environments.

4. Put Safeguards in Place—Without Removing Responsibility

Safeguards prevent catastrophic outcomes. They should not remove opportunities to think, decide, and learn.

5. Build Social and Emotional Literacy Alongside Cognition

Critical thinking collapses without:

• Emotional regulation
• Communication skills
• Self-trust
• Responsibility
• Psychological safety
• Relational awareness
  
  

This is not about being tougher. It’s about being more capable. Grit and resiliency are learned through experience.

Ready to Build These Skills—Not Just Talk About Them?

If you’re ready to:

• Strengthen critical thinking
• Build self-trust
• Improve communication
• Navigate uncertainty with confidence
• Thrive across life, relationships, and career
  
  

This is exactly what we work on inside the FundaMENTALs Life, Relationship & Career Accelerator.

This program teaches the fundamental science and skills of being human—so you can stop outsourcing your judgment and start trusting your ability to navigate real life.

🔹 Learn the science 🔹 Practice the skills 🔹 Build confidence through experience

👉 Visit knowyourfundamentals.com 📩 Or connect with me directly to learn more.