Creating a Culture of Trust as a New Leader
It is usual for a new leader to take some time to create a unique leadership style, and to build trust in your leadership. Here are a few simple steps that will be useful in helping all staff with the inevitable new team dynamics that result from leadership changes.
When you first take on a leadership role, particularly if it is your first role, the emotions can range from excitement to dread and everything in between. You have prepared for the role and you have worked hard to achieve this success in your chosen career, but with responsibility comes accountability.
As a new leader, you may feel like everyone is watching and judging your every action and commenting on your every decision. It is normal to feel vulnerable and to prefer to discover your own unique distinctive leadership style. Over time, you like your predecessors, can and will feel comfortable leadership role you find yourself in. There are steps you can take to assist this process.
- Have a strong personal vision that is in harmony with the mission and strategic plan of the organization. The vision should be inspiring enough that it drives you even in the down times, to have a clear view of what you want your leadership to achieve for the good of the organization.
- Proactively encourage a communication system within the organization that will ensure that dialogue happens from the top down as well as from the bottom up. Open communication is essential to the development of trust and transparency among all team members.
- Surround yourself with people who can be a support network, both within the organization and external to it. This network will provide you with advice and be a sounding board for the difficult decisions.
- Prioritize the achievement of loyalty and trust with influential colleagues and other stakeholders to ensure their support as you evolve into your new role.
- Ensure you focus on small successes to increase staff confidence. Staff will potentially have their own uncertainties about the effect of changes in leadership. Strong and successful team dynamics that are rewarded will help bond the new long team together.
These things will take time to implement. You will not be able to change your company’s culture just like that, but at the same time, you have to remember that dedicated work and effort will always pay out as well.