How to earn trust after a project launch

“I missed a major deadline. The client wasn’t happy. The team looked at me differently.” That’s what a young manager confessed to me over coffee. He’d led a key project that flopped — and suddenly, the trust he’d built with his team and boss felt like it evaporated overnight. He said something that stuck with me: “It’s like I went from promising leader to liability… in one mistake.” That’s the scary part about leadership when you’re early in your career. So, what do you do after the fall? Here’s what I told him: 1. Manage expectations like your credibility depends on it (because it does). You already owned the mistake. Good. But now, over-communicate. Set crystal-clear expectations for your next project: ↳ What’s the exact deliverable? ↳ Who are you building it for? ↳ When is each piece due? ↳ How will you keep stakeholders in the loop? Ambiguity is where mistakes breed. Clarity is where trust rebuilds. 2. Under-promise. Over-deliver. Tempted to prove yourself with a moonshot? Don’t. It backfires more often than not. Instead: ↳ Set realistic targets. ↳ Build in buffers. ↳ Deliver slightly more than what was promised. It’s not flashy, but it works. 3. Win small. Win fast. Credibility doesn’t return all at once. You earn it inch by inch. Focus on quick, visible wins that move the project forward and help the team, not just your image. Examples: ↳ Found a process gap? Propose a fix. ↳ Need support? Make a solid business case for additional resources. ↳ Don’t wait till the final deadline — share milestones early. Momentum builds belief. 4. Reassess. Periodically. Finished your comeback project? Great. But rebuilding trust = consistency over time. ↳ Every 2–3 months, ask: ↳ Am I gaining back confidence from stakeholders? ↳ Are my deliverables exceeding expectations? Do I feel like I trust myself again? If the answers aren’t clear — maybe it’s not just you. Some environments don’t allow for second chances. If that’s the case, find one that does. The truth is: Credibility is hard to earn. Harder to regain. But absolutely possible — if you approach it with humility, clarity, and strategy. We’ve all dropped the ball at some point. The question is: What do you do after the bounce? — PS: I write about leadership, trust, and growing through setbacks every week. #leadership #careeradvice #trust #growthmindset #youngprofessionals

2 areas effective project managers spend more time on than schedules 👉 Risks 👉 Relationships New PMs think success means keeping a schedule on-track. Timelines? Nailed. Tasks? Checked off. Reports? Flawless. But Senior PMs realize the real work isn't in the schedule. It's in the uncertainty around it. So they don't spend time obsessing over it. Instead they: → ID hidden risks before they become real → Navigate cross-functional politics/team dynamics → Align leadership on priorities when the project shifts → Have tough conversations that others avoid When you're operating at a senior level, you're not just managing a plan. You're managing people, change, AND the unknown. Here's how to shift your focus: ✅ Make risk management a superpower Anyone can report delays. Leaders forecast, mitigate, and build trust. Regularly review risk logs with the team. Escalate early. Offer options, get decisions, and outline/communicate next steps. ✅ Build influence, not just status updates Trust isn't built by having perfect charts or reporting dashboards. It's earned by showing up calm, driving clarity, and making a plan when things go sideways. Proactively meet with stakeholders and share what MATTERs. Connect project risks to business impact and get leadership alignment. ✅ Focus on relationships that move the work forward You can't "task manage" you way to success in complex projects. You need people aligned, informed, and empowered. Invest in 1:1s. Understand what stakeholders really care about. Don't chase, connect. Timelines don't get you promoted. Trust does. Prioritize risk management and relationships to succeed in your projects and get you where you want to go next. 🤙

𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 6 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥. Accuracy was strong. Automation was working. But adoption? Flatlined. One of our best-intended projects was stalling—not because the model was wrong, but because the 𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓇𝓸𝒶𝒸𝒽 was. The problem wasn’t technical. It was organizational. That moment forced me to step back and ask: – Had we 𝒾𝓃𝒸𝓁𝓊𝒹𝓮𝒹 the right people from the beginning? – Had we 𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉𝓮𝓃𝓮𝒹 to the friction behind the scenes? – Had we 𝓮𝓃𝒶𝒷𝓁𝓮𝒹  the people who would own this every day? The quiet answer: Not really. So we paused. We brought in frontline users—operators, field managers, finance leads. We redesigned the reporting flow 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽  them, not just for them. We simplified features, renamed metrics, added transparency. And then—adoption took off. Why? Because we applied the 3𝐄 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤: 🔹 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲 → Co-design with business users, not around them 🔹 𝐄𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 → Let business users own the rollout - 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓰𝓊𝒾𝒹𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓮, 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓅𝓸𝓇𝓉, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝓸-𝒸𝓇𝓮𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓸𝓃 𝒻𝓇𝓸𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝓮 𝒹𝒶𝓉𝒶 𝓉𝓮𝒶𝓂. 🔹 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 → Deliver fast, build trust, and show value early 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥. Not resisting it. Not ignoring it. 𝒪𝓌𝓃𝒾𝓃𝓰 it. Here’s what I learned: Enterprise AI doesn’t fail because the math is wrong. It fails when we forget to lead the people around it. Lead with empathy. Design with them. Deliver together. 💬 Have you ever paused a project to rebuild trust? What did it teach you? #AILeadership #OrgDesign #DataAdoption #AIExecution #3EFramework #ChangeManagement #EnterpriseAI #CDO #OCM #Failure #Digitaltransforation #Data

Read this before your first stakeholder meeting. (And lead with credibility from day one.) You just landed a new project. Congrats! Now comes the hard part: Getting people to trust you. Not just your team. The stakeholders. Stakeholder management sounds simple on paper. But in real life? It’s not easy. Here’s how I build rapport early and make it stick: 1. Learn who matters, and why ↳ Forget the org chart. ↳ Find the real decision-makers. ↳ Understand their goals, pain points, and how they define success. 2. Schedule 1:1s-fast ↳ Start conversations before problems show up. ↳ Ask what success looks like to them. ↳ Take notes. Then reflect it back in how you show up. 3. Don’t sugarcoat things ↳ Especially when things go wrong. ↳ They won’t remember every update. ↳ But they will remember if you had the courage to be honest. 4. Keep your promises ↳ Small promises matter more than big plans. ↳ If you say you’ll send something- send it. ↳ That’s how credibility is built. 5. Share the wins ↳ Make them part of the progress. ↳ Send a “We did it” message-not an “I did it” one. ↳ Gratitude compounds goodwill. You don’t need to be the smartest voice in the room. You need to be the most consistent one. Show up. Communicate clearly. Make it about them, not you. That’s how you build trust and lead from day one. P.S. What’s been your biggest challenge with stakeholders so far?

Sometimes, you’re handed a project with a mix of excited and skeptical stakeholders. I was assigned a high-profile project. The stakes were high, and everyone was watching. First virtual meeting, and it was clear: This wouldn’t be smooth sailing. Kevin, a director, kept his tone cool. “Show me the numbers,” he said. Metrics—costs, savings, projections. Without them, there was no trust. Then there was Marcus from operations. “What’s the impact on the ground?” he asked. He cared about day-to-day realities, not charts and plans. I listened. Took notes. They didn’t need a pitch—they needed clarity. For Kevin, I gathered data. Projections, cost analyses, historical trends. Next meeting, he was engaged and asking questions. For Marcus, I walked through the plan. Showed how it would affect his team and how we’d support them. He saw we weren’t just talking change—we were ready to work through it. It wasn’t about selling an idea. It was about building trust through understanding. When you’re assigned a project, getting buy-in isn’t about convincing. It’s about listening, adapting, and connecting with what matters. How do you build trust with your stakeholders?