What initial steps did you take to build trust with your leadership team as a new CIO? How did you prioritize these actions to ensure quick and meaningful impact?

I'd be happy to share my insights on building trust with the leadership team as a new CIO. I began by meeting with key stakeholders to understand their relationship with IT and gather their perspectives on improvements necessary to be a better partner and alignment with their strategy. This helped me identify areas needing attention. I then prioritized common requests and concerns from the leadership team, addressing the most pressing issues first to have a quick and meaningful impact. By delivering on these priorities, I built trust and credibility, showing my commitment to positive change and valuing their input.

In order to achieve it, I installed order thru apps and well-established processes.

First, I chose ClickUp as our project management tool, I created the space for our folder/sprints, then created the status for every SCRUM card we would be using, custom fields as well, and with all that wrote down the process every one would follow to use these tool and processes.

Then I would train my team and the CxO as well.

What people require from you is to fully understand their role within the team and the organization, if you provide them with the road they are going to take along with weekly/bi-weekly 1:1s, team meetings the impact is going to be quicker and meaningful as you’d mentioned.

Finally, use emotional intelligence with your team, apply active listening, foster their hard/soft skills and it will set the foundation for a continuous impact.

Listen, get to know the people behind the roles, let your team and stakeholders know you as a person also, then get into the business agenda. Build trust first and honor that trust, regularly share what have you learned weekly and gradually how are you planning to help ...

Don’t make any big decisions until you get to know the business and the environment better. Sit down with each department and leader to learn about their area, challenges, things they need, things they don’t want to change, etc. That insight is so valuable. Find out some priorities of the leadership team and see if there are quick wins you can do to build trust and win them over. If you are invited into a business meeting, especially for a new initiative, make sure you are acting as an advisor versus a roadblock. Not necessarily saying yes or no, but offering the implications of doing something and guide them to the best path forward. Over time, they will realize you are on their team and will trust your input and advisory. They will seek it willingly.  

I haven't had this opportunity yet, but I would start by reading The CIO's First 100 days:

https://www.gartner.com/document-reader/document/4813631

Here's some of my thoughts:

To build relationships with key stakeholders you should:
-Listen more than talk
-When you commit to doing something, do it
-Speak business (not technology)
-Give more than you take
-Celebrate the success of your team members (not yourself)
-Never talk about someone in a negative way when they aren't in the conversation

Have reoccurring meetings (over coffee or lunch - even better) with your peers.  Remember your peers are your first team.

Also remember that you are hired to fulfill your role.  Part of that is sharing your thoughts (when and where appropriate).

Make sure to delegate the tasks that can be delegated.  This gives you the time to do the tasks only you can do.

It takes time and effort to earn trust and it's very easy to lose trust.