How do you build trust and reputation when working remotely?

For those who know you trust and reputation are already in place but these can easily disappear as if it was a cold call, as visual cues and nuance are often lost in text and even video. where all. To counter this, think of a zoom call like a presentation, stand up, use your hands more, instill the feeling of being in the same room. Most importantly though, always deliver value.

I recently joined a new company and the distancing measures were just extended.  Consequently I may not get the opportunity to meet my colleagues or clients in person for several more months.  I've made a point of introducing myself to people I might need to know, and scheduling brief, casual zoom meetings with them.  I also do my homework about the individuals I meet, getting to know them through LinkedIn and the corporate org chart.  I start with an elevator pitch-like introduction and do a lot of listening.  It seems to be working!

Our culture, in general, is such that when you're on a teleconference, most people's cameras aren't on. So we tried to turn those cameras on a bit more so that we could at least maintain a two-dimensional view of the people we were working with. And then there were casual get-togethers after hours for a movie night or game night or whatever to be social. We did a lot of that during the pandemic.

When you have a supervisor and you're starting that relationship remotely, the most important thing is to build that reputation and trust. Talk about your strengths. Be very open and candid about weaknesses, and share them as things you both need to be aware of and work around, because that's a partnership. And it might be easy for those of us who have been around the block. But for people who are newly entering the workforce, it's going to be very different for them. It can be scary because they don't know how to be vulnerable or how to build reputation and trust. It's going to be scary for them for a while.