Who is Anthony Washington Sr.?

Anthony Washington Sr. is a U.S. Army and Maryland Army National Guard veteran, a coach and official of more than twenty years, and the founder of After Today, LLC. He builds leadership training, athletic recruiting education, and people-first AI systems for student-athletes, families, schools, and organizations. He is based in Pennsylvania and works primarily across Pennsylvania and Maryland.

What does Anthony Washington Sr. do?

He works in three connected areas: athletic recruiting education that gives student-athletes and families a repeatable daily process, leadership training for first-time supervisors and public-sector leaders, and people-first AI and workflow implementation for organizations. He also speaks and runs workshops for schools, teams, and districts.

What is athletic recruiting infrastructure?

Athletic recruiting infrastructure is the repeatable system a family or program uses to manage recruiting — film, academics, communication with coaches, eligibility tracking, and follow-up — instead of relying on exposure events and luck. Anthony teaches recruiting as infrastructure so progress comes from a daily practice rather than a seasonal scramble.

What does people-first AI implementation mean?

People-first AI implementation means adopting AI to improve the work without displacing or sidelining the people who do it. In practice that means starting from the actual workflow, keeping a human accountable for decisions, training staff on the tools they will use, and setting guardrails before scale — not buying software and hoping the team adapts.

Who are Anthony's programs designed for?

Student-athletes and their parents, high school and grassroots coaches, athletic programs, schools and districts, first-time supervisors, public-sector leaders, and organizations that want leadership training or help implementing AI without leaving employees behind.

Does Anthony Washington Sr. provide leadership training?

Yes. He trains first-time supervisors and team leads on the first ninety days, difficult conversations, accountability, and building trust, drawing on his military service, public-sector supervision, and coaching experience. Training is delivered as courses, workshops, and organizational consulting.

How can a school, district, or organization work with Anthony?

Schools, districts, and organizations can book speaking engagements and workshops, bring in leadership training for supervisors and staff, or engage him on recruiting support and AI and workflow implementation. Start on the contact page and say which of those you need.

How can I book Anthony Washington Sr. to speak?

Send an inquiry through the contact page with your event date, audience, format, and location. The speaking page lists topics, session formats, and the audiences he speaks to most often.

Where is Anthony Washington Sr. based?

He is based in Pennsylvania and works primarily across Pennsylvania and Maryland, with virtual sessions available beyond that area.

Home › Blog › Building Trust as a Brand-New Team Leader

Building Trust as a Brand-New Team Leader

supervisors · July 12, 2026

Trust is built in small, repeated moments. Learn the concrete moves that earn credibility in your first 90 days leading a team.

You just got promoted. Your team was your peers yesterday. Today, you're their leader, and everything hinges on whether they believe you're worth following. Trust doesn't arrive with the title. You earn it through specific, measurable actions, and you start now.

Trust is built in small, repeated moments

Forget grand gestures. Trust grows when people see you do what you say you will do, admit mistakes without deflecting, and give credit generously. Consistency matters more than charisma. Fairness matters more than popularity. Your job is to create a rhythm where your team learns, over weeks and months, that you have a high bar for yourself and genuine care for them.

Start by listening more than you talk. In your first 30 days, resist the urge to announce changes or prove yourself through big decisions. Learn how the team actually works. Learn who does what well, where friction lives, and what the unstated norms are. Ask questions. Take notes. Follow up on what people tell you.

Do the small commitments first

Pick three small, concrete promises you can keep this week. If you say you'll respond to emails within 24 hours, do it every time. If you commit to a weekly one-on-one with each direct report at a specific time, protect that time fiercely. If you promise feedback on a project by Friday, deliver it Thursday. Your people are watching to see if the leadership talk matches the leadership walk. These small wins compound. After four weeks of kept promises, people begin to trust you with bigger things.

Protect your team in tough moments

Your credibility accelerates when your team sees you advocate for them upstream. If leadership asks for something unreasonable, push back on their behalf. If a team member makes a mistake, give them feedback privately first, not in front of the group. If someone is struggling, help them before broadcasting their weakness. Protecting your team doesn't mean enabling poor performance. It means you handle accountability with respect, behind closed doors when possible, and you stand beside them through the difficulty.

Admit your mistakes quickly

You will make decisions that don't work. You will forget a commitment. You will misread a situation. When it happens, name it. Say, "I made a call that didn't serve us, and here's what I'm doing differently." This single move does more for your credibility than months of perfect execution. It signals that you're leading yourself first, that you're willing to be accountable, and that failure is not the end of trust; hiding failure is.

Your first 90-day framework

Weeks 1 to 4: Listen, learn, show up consistently. Keep small promises. Run your one-on-ones without an agenda; let people talk.

Weeks 5 to 8: Identify one or two early wins you can deliver. Build credibility through visible results that benefit the team.

Weeks 9 to 12: Once you've built trust and understand the team's real rhythm, then you can introduce bigger changes with buy-in rather than resistance.

Trust is not fast. But it is durable. Focus on the repeatable actions: showing up on time, following through on commitments, giving credit, protecting your people, and admitting when you're wrong. Your team will follow a leader who does those things consistently long before they follow someone who talks about vision.

Start this week. Pick one small promise and keep it. Build from there.

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