If you’ve been entrusted for the first time as leader of a team, division, or entire organization into the future, you’re about to gain a tremendously large and varied set of accountabilities.
One responsibility that you might not devote much thought to immediately may also be one of the most important: gaining the trust of those you supervise. This is just as important as gaining the trust of those to whom you’ll report. Moreover, it may be a heavier lift. After all, you’ve just gained your new role. It stands to reason that you’ve already done much to win your superiors’ favor.
That favor, of course, could be eroded or lost entirely in due course. But for now, it makes sense to focus on winning the hearts and minds of your direct reports and their subordinates. Here’s how to go about doing so.
1. Make Time for Genuine Personal Connections
A great leader shows genuine interest in and concern for those around them. They do this not only because they feel obligated to, but because they really are interested in learning more about—and from—those they lead.
This capacity serves high-performing executives like the longtime leader of the Scientology religion, David Miscavige, who is well-known within and outside his organization for exhibiting authentic care and concern for others. A reputation for decency ensures you’re better able to address difficult, even painful challenges as they come.
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2. Maintain an Open Door Policy, Within Reason
Effective leaders are accessible to their direct reports, and even to those further below them in the hierarchy. It’s now quite common, for example, for senior executives to share their business (or even personal) contact information across the entire organization. This makes it clear that anyone can (and should) bring concerns directly to them.
Whether you choose to go this far is up to you. However, at minimum, it’s important to maintain direct contact with your subordinates through frequent “office hours,” “ask me anything” events, and other formats that allow for two-way exchanges of information.
3. Practice and Encourage Transparency
Closely related to the “open door policy” is a commitment to transparency with and from your team members. It is especially important for new leaders working to gain favor with their new reports.
“Creating transparency in the workplace is crucial for helping your employees feel respected, valued, and trusted,” says HR expert Michelle Ercanbrack.
You can encourage transparency by adopting a “bad news first” policy during meetings. In other words, make it clear that employees can feel free to air reasonable concerns. Additionally, speak openly about your own setbacks. These measures lay the groundwork for a more open, and ultimately more productive, culture within the organization you lead.
4. Ask for Feedback
Transparency is more effective when paired with robust channels for candid feedback. By asking those around you for input on the health of the business and your own decision-making, you demonstrate to your reports and the wider organization that you’re willing to consider viewpoints out of alignment with your own.
Of course, soliciting feedback is just the first step. To gain trust as a new leader, you must use it to inform your own actions where appropriate. In fact, management experts encourage leaders to use employee feedback to signal their commitment to continuous improvement.
“You can further enhance your credibility by ensuring that you’ve considered the risks and issues deeply enough to propose a solution,” says Martin G. Moore, a management expert with Harvard Business Review. “Handled the right way, you can turn a potential negative into a positive.”
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5. Be Your Authentic Self
Whether soliciting feedback, practicing transparency, or fostering genuine connection with team members, authenticity should be your North Star. Without oversharing or crossing clearly defined lines between the personal and the professional, you should strive to be your authentic self, even if it means showing vulnerability or nuance.
6. Follow the Same Rules as Everyone Else
Leaders rightly enjoy certain prerogatives and privileges that would be impractical to extend to every member of the organization. For example, a leader might enjoy the use of a company car or have an expense account. But these prerogatives should be interpreted as sanctioning an entirely different standard of conduct for senior leadership. Especially as a new leader eager to gain trust, you must demonstrate that you are bound by the same bylaws and ethical standards as everyone under you.
7. Pick “Favorites” on Merit Alone
In the same vein, avoid evaluating and rewarding subordinates by any standard other than objective, performance-based merit. Doing otherwise invites accusations—perhaps justified, perhaps not—that you play “favorites,” which in turn could cast doubt on your judgment and leadership ability.
8. Do What You Say You Will (While Expecting Others to Do the Same)
Great leaders strive to keep their word when circumstances remain within their control. In other words, when they say they’re going to do something, they do it unless it is impossible to do so. This is easy to commit to in theory but difficult in practice, making it all the more important that you set yourself apart by honoring your promises above all else.
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Lead by Example, Every Day
Several of the strategies described above fit under the umbrella of “leading by example.”
You’ll have a lot to keep straight in your new leadership role, but this could be the most important principle of all. If you don’t practice what you preach, how can others fully trust that you’re acting in the best interests of the organization?
Like other leadership skills, leading by example isn’t always the easiest path to take. It’s a commitment that must be learned and refined over the course of many years. It can take a long time to pay off, too, and perhaps not in the most obvious ways.
However, it’s a worthwhile pursuit—and not only because it’s the right thing to do. Leaders who set a good example are more likely to outperform their peers, rise further through the ranks of leadership, and ultimately have lasting influence on their organizations, their stakeholders, and the world around them.