WHY WE STOP BELIEVING
And what it takes to believe again.
We spend a lot of time talking about trust.
But I think we're starting with the wrong question.
Before people stop trusting a leader, an organization, or an institution, they often stop believing in it.
What makes people willing to believe again?
I’m Laura Darrell, an executive leadership advisor, author, and doctoral researcher. I help CEOs and executive teams strengthen their judgment, prepare future leaders, and build organizations worthy of belief.
ABOUT LAURA
I’ve spent my career trying to understand what makes people follow, participate, and believe.
For more than 25 years, I’ve worked in leadership roles, including as Vice President of National Operations & Training at Boston Pizza, and alongside executives navigating growth, change, culture, failure, and uncertainty.
I’ve seen what happens when people believe in where they’re going, and what happens when they don’t.
Today, that experience is the focus of my doctoral research: understanding why belief breaks down in leaders, organizations, and institutions, and what allows it to emerge again.
I bring those ideas into the real world through my writing and speaking, and through my work with CEOs and executive teams on judgment, succession, and leading through change.
Belief Before Trust
Belief → Participation → Experience → Trust
Trust develops through experience.
Belief is what makes us willing to have the first experience when the outcome is still uncertain.
I work with CEO’s, presidents, and executive teams navigating the moments when leadership matters most—growth, change, difficult decisions, cultural challenges, and uncertainty.
My role isn't to provide certainty. It's to help leaders think clearly when certainty doesn't exist, make better decisions, and create the conditions for people to participate in what comes next.
Because strategy alone doesn't create change.
People have to believe the direction is credible. They have to believe their leaders are worthy of following. And they have to believe their participation matters.
Lasting change begins when people believe in where they're going—and choose to participate in getting there.
HOW I HELP
Change begins with what people believe is possible.
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A thinking partner for CEOs, presidents, and owners navigating difficult decisions, complexity, and change. Together, we strengthen judgment, collaboration, and the clarity people need to follow.
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Intentional, multiyear development for the leaders who will run the organization next. The focus goes beyond choosing a successor: it builds enterprise perspective, commercial judgment and leadership credibility.
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Retreats and working sessions that help executive teams make better decisions together, work through competing priorities, and leave aligned on what comes next.
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Research-informed keynotes on belief, trust, leadership credibility and change, for leadership conferences, associations and industry events.
Leadership tested in the real world.
Experience shaped inside some of North America's most iconic organizations.
LEADERSHIP FORGED INSIDE THE SYSTEM
For franchisors, franchisees, and multi-unit operators.
FROM THE FRONT LINES TO THE BOARDROOM
I know franchising because I’ve lived it.
I’ve worked on both sides of the franchise relationship, from multi-unit operations to Vice President of Operations & Training at Boston Pizza, a system of nearly 400 restaurants. That experience showed me what franchisors need to build strong systems, and what franchisees need to believe those systems are worth following.
Because great franchise systems aren’t built on manuals alone.
They’re built when people believe in the system, believe in each other, and believe their participation matters.
Today, I bring that operating experience together with my research on leadership and belief to help franchise leaders navigate growth, change, culture, and the difficult moments when alignment begins to break down.
My writing on leadership, franchising, and the future of work has been published by FranchiseWire, Franchising.com, Franchise Magazine USA, and the International Franchise Association.
