Establish trust from day one (video transcript)
Are you joining a new team and worried about how to get those relationships with your teammates off on the right foot?
Establishing trust right from the get go is so important if you’re going to have the happy, healthy, and productive team that you deserve.
This post will give you four things that you can work on proactively to make sure that your relationships get off to a good start.
Be predictable
Showing up at the same time as everyone else and behaving in the same way is a good way of integrating yourself into a new team. If there are situations where you have to behave differently, for example not being in a meeting or not responding to an email in the same timely fashion that you normally do, remember to give people a heads up.
The more predictable you are, and the more people know how you will react to certain issues, the more they will trust you.
Demonstrate you CAN deliver
Competence is about whether or not you can do your job well. Your new team will certainly be watching for this. As such, it can be valuable to make clear statements like “Here’s how I’m going to approach this”, “Here’s the article I read to make sure that I’m up to date”, or “Here are the three files from previous projects I’ve reviewed”.
It’s also great to ask questions, for example “Are there any other files that you recommend?” or “Is there anything I’m missing from this approach?”
Showing your team that you care about the quality of your work will increase their confidence in your competence.
Demonstrate you WILL deliver
The third point is not about whether you can be successful, but whether you will deliver reliably. Not delivering for your teammates can lead to their sense of trust and dependability diminishing.
Being upfront with your team by either confirming you are on track to deliver a project, or by giving advance notice of any delays, will help demonstrate your ability to deliver.
Establish your integrity
Ultimately, your integrity is assessed by your behavior and what your track record is.
You can establish a proactive sense that you’re a high integrity person by being authentic and transparent about your struggles, and being candid with the person about anything that’s not working in your relationship so they have more confidence that you’re not gossiping about it somewhere else.
Showing that you’re willing to struggle and to have uncomfortable conversations will give them the sense that you’ll have their back when the time comes.
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These are some things you can do to proactively establish trust in a relationship. Be more predictable, show that you’re competent, show you’re dependable, and then give them a sneak peek of how much integrity you have. That will get those relationships off on the right foot.
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