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How to build trust with your team as a manager

You build trust by doing what you said you'd do, every time, in small things: the 1:1 that happens, the answer you promised by Friday, the credit you give in public, the bad news you share early. Admit what you don't know, ask for the team's view before you decide, and treat people the same whether they're in the room or not. There's no shortcut: trust grows from a record of kept promises, and a new manager starts that record in week one.

Below: what trust in a manager is made of, ten habits that build it, what to do and say in your first weeks, what breaks it fastest, how it differs for a new team, former peers and remote teams, how to repair it, how to tell it's working, and a 90-day plan.

What trust in a manager is made of

A useful way to split it comes from The Trusted Advisor (Maister, Green and Galford, 2000). People trust you more when you are:

• Credible: you know what you're talking about, or say plainly when you don't.
• Reliable: you do what you said, when you said.
• Safe to be open with: what they tell you isn't used against them or passed around.

And they trust you less the more you seem to be in it for yourself. For a new manager, reliability is the fastest to build, because it's made of small promises you can keep this week.

Google's Project Aristotle, a study of its own teams published on its re:Work site, found that psychological safety (people feeling they can take a risk, ask a question or admit a mistake without being punished) was the most important factor in how well a team worked. In practice, a lot of it comes down to how the manager reacts the first few times someone speaks up.

Ten habits that build trust

1. Keep every small promise. "I'll find out by Thursday" means Thursday. If you can't, say so before Thursday.
2. Hold your 1:1s. Move them if you must; don't cancel twice. See how often to have 1 on 1s.
3. Say "I don't know, I'll find out". Then find out.
4. Give credit in public, by name, especially to your boss. Take blame for the team in public too, then fix it in private.
5. Share what you can, early. Bad news in particular. "I don't have all of it yet, but here's what I know."
6. Ask before you decide, and say what you did with the input: "I went with option B. Sam's point about the deadline is why."
7. Thank people for bad news. The first time someone tells you a problem and you thank them, they'll tell you the next one sooner.
8. Keep confidences. What someone tells you in a 1:1 stays there, unless it's a safety or legal matter, and say that limit up front.
9. Be the same with everyone. Same rules, same tone, same access, whether you like them or not.
10. Hand over real work. Delegating something that matters, with the authority to decide, tells people you trust them. See how to delegate as a manager.

Your first weeks: what to do

People decide early whether a new manager is safe to be honest with. In the first two weeks:

• Meet everyone one to one and mostly listen. Our first one on one meeting guide has the agenda.
• Ask what they'd keep and what they'd change. Write it down where they can see you writing.
• Fix one small thing they asked for within two weeks: a broken tool, a pointless report. Then say "You mentioned this; it's done."
• Change little else. Big changes before you understand the work tell people you didn't listen.
• Say how you work: how to reach you, what you'll decide, what's theirs, how you'll give feedback.

These fit the first part of the first week as a new manager plan.

Words that build trust

Most trust comes from actions, but a few sentences, said and then kept, do a lot.

In your first team meeting

When you don't know

When you got it wrong

When you can't share something

When someone brings you a problem

Want one small, scripted step like these every morning? Take the 2-minute quiz and get a 10-minute lesson and one script a day, for the talks you lead.

What breaks trust fastest

On that last one: when you pass on a decision you disagree with, you don't have to pretend you like it. "I argued for a different option. This is what was decided, and here's how we'll make it work" keeps both your honesty and your role.

Building trust with a new team

If you came from outside, people don't yet know whether you're credible. Two things help most:

• Learn the work before you judge it. Sit with people while they do it. Ask why things are done the way they are; there's often a reason you can't see yet.
• Respect the previous manager, whatever you think of them. Criticising them criticises the team's past work.

If you replaced someone who was liked, say so: "I know Jo was well liked here. I'm not here to undo what worked."

Building trust with former peers

When you're promoted from within, people already know you. What they don't know is whether you'll be fair now that you have power. Treat old friends and old rivals the same, stop the lunchtime gossip you used to share, and say out loud that the relationship has changed. Managing former peers has the words for those first conversations.

Building trust with a remote team

Remote, people only see what you put in writing and what happens on calls, so reliability has to be visible:

• Reply when you said you would, and say when you'll be offline.
• Write decisions down, with the reason, where everyone can find them.
• Keep cameras optional but 1:1s fixed.
• Make sure the quietest people on the call get asked first sometimes.
• Don't judge by green dots. Judge by the work, and say that's what you're doing.

How to repair trust you've broken

Everyone breaks a promise eventually. Repair works when it's fast and plain:

1. Name it, without excuses. "I said I'd fight for the training budget and I didn't follow through."
2. Say the effect on them. "That meant you lost your place on the course."
3. Say what you'll do now, with a date. "I've asked again this morning and will tell you the answer Friday."
4. Do it. The apology counts only once the next promise is kept.

If the break was bigger (you shared something told in confidence, you blamed someone in public), expect it to take weeks of kept promises, not one conversation. Don't push them to say it's fine.

How to tell if your team trusts you

You can't ask "Do you trust me?" and get a useful answer. Watch for these instead:

• People bring you problems early, not after they've grown.
• They disagree with you in meetings.
• They admit mistakes without being caught.
• Your 1:1s have content they chose, not just updates.
• They ask for feedback.

And ask a question that's easier to answer honestly, in your 1:1 questions: "What's one thing I could do differently that would make your job easier?"

A 90-day plan for building trust

Trust also depends on two other habits: people trust a manager whose expectations are clear, and they're easier to motivate once they trust you.

Curious which part of trust your style finds hardest? The free leadership style quiz takes about two minutes and names it.

Questions about building trust as a manager

How long does it take to build trust with a new team?

There's no fixed time. Most of it comes from a record of kept promises, so expect the first months to matter most. One broken promise early can cost weeks.

How do I build trust if the last manager broke it?

Say you know things were hard, don't criticise the person, and keep small promises visibly. Be patient: people are checking whether you're the same.

Should I share my mistakes with my team?

Yes, the ones that affect them, plainly and with what you're doing about it. It makes it safe for them to admit theirs.

Can I be friends with my team and still be trusted?

Be friendly with everyone and close with no one in particular. Visible favourites break trust with the rest.

What's the fastest way to lose a team's trust?

Taking credit for their work, talking about one person to another, or punishing someone for bad news.

Next: read how to motivate your team as a manager, take the free leadership style quiz, or browse all our guides for new managers.

Sources

• David H. Maister, Charles H. Green and Robert M. Galford, The Trusted Advisor, Free Press, 2000.
• Google re:Work, "Guide: Understand team effectiveness" (Project Aristotle): https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/
• Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organization, Wiley, 2018.
• Jacob Kaplan-Moss, "How to build trust", November 16, 2023: https://jacobian.org/2023/nov/16/how-to-build-trust/
• Candost Dagdeviren, "How to build trust in a team as a new manager": https://candost.blog/how-to-build-trust-in-a-team-as-a-new-manager/