5 Steps to Becoming a Manager Your Team Trusts

I had just inherited a team of seasoned network developers, and I knew nothing about network hardware.

Up until that point, I had led a team that project managed and provided front line technical support for customer interfaces. Not only was network hardware an area of expertise I knew little about, I had to be immediately trustworthy to a team of 6 men. Most were older than me, and – at 5’1” – all of them towered over me.

You might be asking: Why would trust be the first thing to tackle in this scenario? Shouldn't I first learn something about network hardware? 

Here’s why: Trust has been shown to dramatically increase employee engagement, speed, efficiency, and overall performance.

If you find yourself with a new team assignment, or are just looking for ways to improve your relationship with your existing team, here are 5 practical steps you can take to quickly establish trust.

1. Meet in person. 

If you work remotely, make sure to find an opportunity quickly to get face-to-face time with your new employee or team. I encourage remote corporations to have all-team off-sites at least twice a year, with smaller team meet-ups in between. Whether working in the office, from home, or hybrid, though, it's important to proactively set aside both 1:1 and team bonding time. You will see trust, productivity, and collaboration skyrocket from intentional in-person team activities.

2. Understand what has been going well and what hasn’t.

The most important thing this does is shows the team you care. Yes, they will want to see that you take action (see 3.), but first things first: ask them for more information and LISTEN. The best part is that if you carve out the time to give your team your undivided attention, you are also setting a precedent of how to respectfully and thoughtfully engage with each other. 

3. Identify gaps in support and processes that their previous manager (or you previously) had missed.

Here is where you find a way to take action on what has not been going well. While it's tempting to jump in and start doing the smaller support tasks that are easier, you will be set up for long-term success if you first identify a high-impact gap and resolve it.

Idea: have the team walk through a process with you that involves hand-offs to/from other teams and find one way to reduce a pain point.

4. Find a way to stand up for them.

To build trust, you're going to be the coach that hypes up your team and wants them to win. This doesn't mean you want other departments to lose (sports metaphors only go so far), but it does mean that you put your team first where it matters.

Idea: set up an intake process with other teams so your team isn't constantly getting last-minute requests that take them off of priority projects or making them work late nights. 

5. Rely on them as the experts.

It turned out that I didn't need to be an expert in managing network hardware, because I already had a seasoned team to handle that. I needed to be the expert in leading the team. This is true of leading any new team, but it's hard to do when you start a new role and have even a smidgen of a feeling that you need to prove yourself. Trust me, don't try to do their jobs. Show your team you trust them to do their jobs and make decisions about the things they are experts in. If you trust them, they will likely step up to help more often, and trust you in return.

If you focus on these 5 steps as a manager, you will build trust quickly, which is critical to your team's success. Building trust on your team increases productivity, frees you up to do your most impactful work, and makes work more enjoyable.