Key Takeaways
- The first 30 days as a new leader should be about listening, not showing what you know.
- Trust with inherited teams is built through specifics, not by general statements about caring.
- Changing things before understanding why they exist is the fastest way to lose a team.
When Saim Abbasi joined OptionsSwing in an operational leadership role, he walked into a team that had been built by someone else, had its own culture and norms, and was performing reasonably well. The instinct that most leaders bring to this situation, assert authority quickly, demonstrate competence, change the things that seem obviously wrong, is the instinct that loses inherited teams fastest.
The Listening Phase Is Not Optional
The first 30 days in any new leadership role with an inherited team should be almost entirely listening. Not to perform listening. To actually gather information about how the team works, what they are proud of, what frustrates them, and what they believe the priorities should be. Teams that have been operating for a while have institutional knowledge that no amount of external analysis can substitute for.
Most new leaders skip the listening phase because it feels passive. The payoff from doing it properly shows up in month three, when you are making decisions that the team trusts because they know the decisions are informed by their reality rather than imposed from outside it.
Specific Trust Versus General Intent
Trust with inherited teams is not built through general statements about caring about the team, or wanting to hear everyone's perspective, or valuing diverse input. These are expected statements that every new leader makes and that experienced teams have learned to discount. Trust is built through specific behaviors: keeping small commitments that were made in passing, following up on concerns that were raised in one-on-ones, and making decisions that reflect the team's priorities rather than just the new leader's preferences.
The Changing Things Too Fast Mistake
The fastest way to lose an inherited team is to change things before understanding why they exist. Every process, norm, and decision pattern in a functioning team has a history. The process that looks inefficient from the outside often exists because the simpler approach was tried and failed for a specific reason. The leader who changes it without learning that history disrupts the organization, gets burned, and loses credibility in a way that takes months to recover from.
"Every team has a reason for why they do things the way they do them. Learning that reason before changing the thing is the whole job in your first month."