â”You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”
Sounds like good advice, right? First impressions are strong.
What about the second impression? Or the third? Or the fourth? Or the 100th?
Just like an interviewee can interview well but be a terrible teammate, you can make a good first impression as a leader but lose credibility over those subsequent impressions.
Building trust and showing others who you are is in all those little interactions and impressions you make.
It’s in how you say “no”, when a junior engineer wants to optimize a non-hot path item.
It’s in how you say “yes” when someone puts in PTO.
It’s in how you greet someone when you’re having a bad day.
Being a leader means realizing that your mood and how you interact with others affects how they perceive you, and whether or not they’ll follow you. Not just in the big moments, but in those really tiny moments that we tend to overlook.
What’s a small moment you’ve had with a leader that really cemented your impression of them?