How Can You Quickly Build Trust When Joining an Organization?

As a fractional CMO, or someone new to an organization, it’s critical to build trust out of the gate. Credentials and endorsements from leadership can help, yet they can also lead to resistance should employees see you as a threat to their roles.

Having dropped into many organizations, here’s what I’ve learned.

Start by being present. I mean literally. Take the time to be on premises for face-to-face interactions. A few days in person builds trust faster than being a face on a screen.

Meet with all levels of the organization.

With senior leadership: Understand company goals, success metrics, and expectations for your role. Ask them about their corporate vision. Clarify their interpretation of the current situation — and what they believe needs to change or stay the same.

With functional managers: Explore current obstacles to meeting performance goals, including resource gaps, ever-changing or unclear priorities, gaps in resources, and whether they feel their role is well defined. 

With junior and new employees: Ask where they want to grow, what excites them, and where they feel stuck. Explore how they feel they’re being treated and whether they are getting the training and mentoring they need. 

With everyone: Listen for how they articulate (or struggle to articulate) the company’s vision and mission. Do they see a clear link between their work and the bigger picture?

In every conversation: Prioritize listening over problem solving. Your early goal is to understand and assess, not to fix.

Seek shared meaning. Look for consistent or inconsistent interpretations of priorities and success measures.

Pay attention to process and system gaps. How do things actually get done? Are approvals clear? Are tools enabling or hindering progress?

This helps you:

• Understand how work flows — and where it breaks down.

• Assess whether the organization is aligned on priorities or operating in silos.

• Build credibility by speaking the "language" of the team — reflecting back insights in terms they recognize.

• Position yourself as a partner who helps them succeed and not a disruptor who threatens what they value.

Additional trust-building insights:

• Follow up on what you hear. Even simple actions show you’re listening — and serious about driving positive change.

• Stay transparent. Share what you’re learning and your early observations, but do so without judging or trying to demonstrate you know better. .

• Build small wins fast. Even minor improvements, acknowledged openly, start stacking evidence that you’re here to help, not just to evaluate.

• Be consistent. Trust builds on reliability. Consistency — especially between what you say and do — can cause build lasting trust.

• There’s nothing more satisfying than being seen not just as a resource, but as an ally who can be a catalyst for growth.