Before you arrived, they had a crappy leader. The previous leader might have been overbearing, didn’t listen, or two faced. Maybe he didn’t communicate with the team except to point out their failures. Maybe he shut them down when they made suggestions or offered him feedback.  

That type of leader is ruled by a combination of fear, pride, and/or insecurity. They have character flaws that damage their ability to build trust and lead that team. That kind of leadership damages trust. But now it’s your team. The question is: How do you take over after a bad leader? 

This Team Needs a Leader of Character

The team is cautious because of their past experiences. You can’t blame them for protecting themselves or even having a bad attitude about their leadership. They have scar tissue, and you are going to have to work to gain their trust. What you choose to do next, how you choose to communicate with them, is now a test of your character.

You will need to exercise multiple Habits of Character:

Courage:  Acting despite perceived or actual risk.

Humility:  Believing and acting like “it’s not about me”.

Integrity:  Doing what is good, right and proper, even at personal cost.

Selflessness:  Putting the needs of others before our own needs, desires or convenience.

Duty:  Taking action based on our assigned tasks and moral obligations.

In our blog, Winning Over a New Team, we share some guidance for new leaders on new teams. But when you take over after a bad leader, rebuilding trust after a bad leader becomes one of your most important responsibilities. Here are three keys to regaining their trust that will test your character.

You Need to Listen

There is an old saying:  They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.  One of the best ways you can let people know you care about them is to listen to them.  Instead of listening, a lot of leaders step into this situation and talk.  They try to make people understand how competent they are.  “This is how I see things.  This is how I do things.”  They make it all about themselves.  But if you start here, you will probably get blank stares or perhaps a polite nod. 

If you are taking over a new team, especially one that has lost trust in leadership, you need to spend time listening before you start trying to change things. There is a history on that team that you know little about.  They have battle wounds from the old leader.  They are going to be slow to trust until they see that you are willing to hear their stories.

This is not the time for you to be asserting your authority.  It’s time for you to prove that you care.  The conversations you have with individuals and the team as a whole will begin to break down the walls they erected to keep themselves protected from the last guy.

Listen twice as much as you speak.  Work hard to understand their perspectives.  This is not just something to do in the beginning.  This is how good leaders build strong relationships with the people they are called to lead.  This takes Humility and a level of Selflessness.  You will accomplish very little as their leader unless they realize you care about what they have to say, even if it will take time away from your immediate agenda.

You Need to be Consistent

Consistency means you make decisions based on your values.  Values declare what you stand for.  Values help you make consistent choices no matter the circumstances you face that day.  If you consistently make decisions based on Courage, Humility, Integrity, Selflessness, Duty and Positivity, your team will know what to expect.  They won’t wait and wonder what you will do.  They will understand what you value.  “Dave’s not here, but I know what he would tell us to do.  So we might as well get started.”

Consistency becomes especially important in leadership after poor management, because the team may already be expecting the new leader to disappoint them. This consistency is a test of your Integrity.  Once you declare that you have values and you stand for something, you must uphold those values consistently, or your words mean nothing, and you will never gain their trust.

You Need to be Available

You can’t lead from behind a keyboard.  You can manage from that position.  But, you can’t lead. Because leadership is about people.  You need to get out and visit with the men and women you are called to lead.  Schedule time to just be present at training or over meals.  Get to know them on a personal level and share some stories.  

This will take time away from your other responsibilities.  Your Duty includes the moral obligation of building relationships with the people you are now leading.  Relationships take time, especially after the previous leader left them with a bad taste in their mouths.

A distant leader does not build trust.  They will need to know who you are before they decide to trust you.  To break down the walls the old leader helped build, you are going to need to show up without an agenda and build relationships beyond the transactional communications that many leaders settle into.

You Get to Reset Their Careers

When you take over from a bad leader, you have an opportunity to reset the careers of everyone on that team.  They may be wary, but they also need hope. You have the moral obligation to get them back on track and actually build a team full of engaged people who believe in their leadership and what they are doing.

This is your task, your moral obligation, and your time to exercise the character the previous leader failed to exercise.

Question:

• How will you rebuild trust with that team?
• Why is the leader’s character the key to success in this situation?