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I quickly realised that I couldn’t change what I didn’t notice, and my critical, negative approach was something that was so ingrained in me that I didn’t even know it was there. The humbling experience of asking others for help, to let me know when I was engaging in destructive behaviour, was the second step

I began to express appreciation in ways that I had never done before. Rather than pointing out the one thing that wasn’t perfect, I found the many things that my team members were doing well and let them know how much I appreciated their hard work and their levels of excellence.

Fourth, I stopped talking in terms of “me” and started talking in terms of “we” when it came to success

Unleash the strengths and the positive energy of others around you by emphasising and building on employees’ strengths Use deliberate communications to help connect day to day work with a higher purpose that has meaning for your employees Praise your employees for specific positive things that they have done Take time to encourage your employees and support them when times are stressful Offer to help out to ease the load when someone is struggling Keep a gratitude log of all of the positive things you are grateful for Call or send personalised notes of gratitude on Thanksgiving, New Year’s and employees’ birthdays Be compassionate Practice forgiveness with yourself and others And, most importantly, take care of yourself, manage your own stress and energy, so that you can be a positive force each and every day no matter what happens around you

Without trust, employees won’t level with you—at best, you’ll learn either non-truths or part truths.

The best way to start building trust to take the time and meet as many individual contributors as you can as soon as you can.

I made this my priority partly because I wanted to know what customers were saying—but also to make an internal statement.

Doing this correctly takes time—but less than you might think.

Later on my first day at Intralinks, I began arranging meetings with individual contributors. That’s where my learning really began. Over the next few weeks I met with over 60 individual contributors. Not only did I learn a lot, but I convinced them that I cared what they thought and could be trusted with the truth.

Instead of just laying this out in an all-hands meeting, I began laying out the plan in one-on-one meetings in which I talked about how each individual’s feedback had helped guide my thinking.

None of this could have happened without building the trust of the team. New leaders must remember that many of the best insights on how to fix a company lie with employees further down the org chart. Creating a trusting, honest dialogue with these key personnel should be every new leader’s top priority.