Shaw fronted the media in GWS colours for the first time on Wednesday after he was shown the door at the Magpies during the trade period.
The 27-year-old struggled with discipline during his time with Collingwood, most remarkably losing his cool and showing ill-tempered behaviour towards team-mates in his final game for the Pies – the shock elimination final loss to Port Adelaide.
But Shaw, who is diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, knows he must curb his outbursts at the Giants.
"I'm very passionate about my footy and I'm very passionate about success and sometimes that gets a hold of me," he said.
"But I know when you've got young kids around you, you have to be careful with what you say and how you say it.
"I'm still learning, as these boys are. Leadership comes fairly naturally to me, but I've got really high expectations and hopefully I can get that message across to these boys."
Shaw said he never wanted to leave the Pies and was distraught when told his time with the club was over.
"I haven't spoken to Eddie (McGuire) yet. I'm still waiting for a phone call from him," he said of the Collingwood president.
"It was a clean break. As soon as the club decided to trade me and I decided to go to GWS, that was it.
"I've only had a couple of negative comments throughout and they were just (from people) upset because they bought their kids a No.39 jumper at Collingwood and have to change it this year.
"I still have a lot of friends there and premiership teammates and it will always be part of my history, but now I'm just looking forward."
And having signed a five-year deal, he knows he will be around long enough to be part of GWS's inevitable rise up the ladder.
"I wasn't too happy with the process of how I got to GWS, it dragged out a bit, but I'm rapt with the result."
"With the way this group has built and the improvements they made last year, if they can get a bit more confidence into them, a couple more wins on the board as well, they can improve pretty rapidly.
"The talent is there," he said.
Heath Shaw: Can he curb the anger?
