What to Do When a New Leader Doesn’t Trust Me? She Did Something Unexpected

Zhou Min had been with the company for five years, and she knew the business inside out, like the back of her hand.

When her old supervisor left, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t entertained the thought — for the department head position, she was the top pick in terms of both seniority and ability. But headquarters ended up parachuting in a man surnamed Chen, barely in his early thirties, who brought two of his own people with him.

At the first department meeting, Mr. Chen dropped one line: “From now on, we’ll sort everything out from scratch.”

Four simple words, and it was as if the past five years had been turned to a new page. Everyone in the room had their own thoughts about it.

What do I do if the new leader doesn’t trust me? She never said it out loud, but it sat heavy in her chest. The plans, the clients, the systems — all of it was built by her. Yet with one line from someone else, it all became “to be sorted out from scratch.”

She went to ask her father. The old man was a retired engineer who’d spent his whole career in a state-owned enterprise, and he’d seen countless leaders come and go. After hearing her out, he only asked one question: “Do you know who Wang Jian was?”

“Qin Shi Huang sent him to lead 600,000 troops to attack the State of Chu — that was every last soldier Qin had. Before the army set out, guess what the first thing he did was?”

Zhou Min shook her head.

“He asked Qin Shi Huang for fertile farmland and fine mansions — a huge stretch of them. Qin Shi Huang laughed out loud. Wang Jian said that since the king still had use for him, he might as well ask for more property to leave to his descendants.”

“On the march to the front, he sent people back to ask for more again and again. Even his own aides couldn’t stand to watch it.”

The old man took a sip of tea: “Wang Jian said something plain and true — ‘The King of Qin is distrustful by nature. Now he’s put every last soldier of Qin under my sole command. If I don’t beg for fields and mansions to build up my family’s estate and show I have no other aims, am I supposed to just let the King of Qin sit there and suspect me of having ambitions of my own?’”

“What he meant is — the King of Qin was suspicious by nature. He’d handed over the entire national army to me. If I didn’t act like all I cared about was money and nothing else, wasn’t I just asking him to turn around and suspect me of having grand ambitions?”

The old man set down his teacup: “‘含章可贞 (Hán zhāng kě zhēn, bearing one’s qualities inwardly, perseverance holds)’. Having ability is one thing; making people feel at ease with you is another. If all you do is show off your skills without showing where you stand, the more capable he thinks you are, the more he’ll guard against you. When Wang Jian set out with 600,000 troops, the thing he most wanted the King of Qin to see wasn’t ‘I can lead an army’ — it was ‘I have no ambitions beyond my station.’”

Zhou Min sat stunned for a long time.

The next day, she did something no one expected — she gathered up all the core client files, system documentation, and project progress schedules she held, organized them neatly, and brought them straight to Mr. Chen’s office.

“Mr. Chen, I’ve compiled all the core data and plans from the past few years here. You’ll need time to get up to speed since you just arrived, so feel free to use these first. If anything’s unclear, you can find me anytime.”

Mr. Chen didn’t say a word, just nodded.

She offered no further explanation.

Over the next month, she threw her full support behind every new plan Mr. Chen pushed forward. She drafted the data and the proposals, and Mr. Chen delivered the reports. She never cut in or stole the spotlight in meetings.

Once, a major client ran into a problem when Mr. Chen was out of town. She stayed up all night leading the team to fix it. The next day, she only said one line: “It’s handled. The plan is on your desk.”

She didn’t say “I worked until 3 a.m. last night,” didn’t say “the client was this close to terminating the contract.” Just six words.

How do a parachuted-in leader and a long-tenured employee work together? She used to think the answer was “prove your value.” Now she knew that wasn’t it. The answer was “put him at ease.”

In the second month, Mr. Chen called her in for a talk, saying he wanted her to lead the core project team and be fully in charge of execution on the ground.

She didn’t say “I’ve waited five years for this day.” She only said: “Okay. I’ll do my best.”

As she walked out, she remembered her father’s words — having talent isn’t the hardest thing. The hardest thing is having talent, but knowing when to hold it back.

What do I do if the new leader doesn’t trust me? Her answer now was: don’t rush to prove yourself. First, let him know who you really are.