Work your way up the Trust Hierarchy
When you join a new team or company as a PM there is a strong urge to land a new strategy and impact as soon as possible in order to earn trust and build a strong reputation. But the reality is that landing impact takes time and you need the trust of your team to land that impact anyways.
So here is an approach to incrementally earn the trust of your team that will help you eventually land great impact.
Cares about us: This is the easiest to demonstrate and takes very little time. One approach is to learn more about the backgrounds, challenges, aspirations, growth areas for all your XFN partners (eng/design/UXR/DS etc) and commit to helping them reach those goals.
Listens Well and understands teams POV: Typically when a new PM joins, most teams are scared of the prospect of a change in strategy or roadmaps. You can quickly assuage these concerns by seeking to truly understand every aspect of the teams plans and processes. In every conversation with your team make them feel deeply heard. If people think that you made the effort to understand something well then they are more open to any suggestions from you.
Represents the team accurately: One the key jobs as a PM is to represent the team’s point of view (POV) not your own. You need to earn this trust by being very explicit about what the team’s current POV is and where there are differing opinions on specific topics. It is critical to never to pass off your opinion as the team’s opinion before you have aligned with your team. Similarly your EM, and other key XFN partners need to accurately represent you when you are not in meetings.
Can unblock and support the team: By the time you are done with the above you will have a clearer picture of what work different XFN partners are already doing well, where they need help and what challenges they are facing. You can then (1) Redefine your role based on what your team’s competences are and fill the gaps (2) Start adding value to help the team make progress: things people don’t want to do or have been blocked on etc.
Can land new strategy and land impact: This is probably going to take a half or more so be patient. Help the team execute on existing plans and work on true alignment & commitment within your team and leads on any strategy. The key here is that you are working towards a shared vision vs your vision you are getting buyin for!
When you work through the trust hierarchy every next step becomes much easier!