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Managing Former Peers |Leila's House of Corrections

You've been promoted! Congratulations--but guess what? Your former gossip pal is now your direct report. Learn 3 tips to smooth your transition to managing your new team of old friends.

If you have questions or suggestions for future video topics, Leila wants to hear from you.

Speaker: Leila Bulling Towne, Executive Coach, The Bulling Towne Group

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Tags: Corporate Communications, Team Management, Marketing, Management, peers, employees, business, Leila's House of Corrections, promotion

 

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Managing Former Peers |Leila's House of Corrections

You've been promoted! Congratulations--but guess what? Your former gossip pal is now your direct report. Learn 3 tips to smooth your transition to managing your new team of old friends.

If you have questions or suggestions for future video topics, Leila wants to hear from you.

Remember the gal whose cube was next to yours? Your gossip pal, the one you complained about your manager to? Well, guess what? She s now your direct report! You ve been promoted, and now you are her manager! Nervous? If so, Come on managers, it s time to manage your former peers.

Sometimes when you get promoted, you get more than you ask for. For example, you may inherit your former peers as part of your team. This is a challenge you must face head on and right now. If you are feeling uneasy, get started with these tips.

Tip 1: Acknowledge the change.

Things are different. Once a member of a team, you re now the leader of that team. Recognize this. Don t hide behind it. Don t assume or hope others won t notice or will just get used to it. In your team and 1 on 1 meetings, say something like, Our relationship has changed. The dynamics of the team have changed. Let s talk about it.

Tip 2: Ask for your team s ideas and thoughts.

Things have changed, but one thing remains the same: it s a team. Your team. As its leader, you set the tone. Cooperation is vital. Ask people, during group and individual meetings, for ideas on how you can be an effective manager. Involve them, and they will involve you. This increases engagement, refocusing everyone on the business.

Tip 3: Don t treat them differently, but do.

It s time to focus on business, not pleasure. The frequency of social activities with your team is what will change the most right away. Tread lightly. For business events, it still works to buy a round of drinks, but to start tossing drinks back yourself, well, those days are over. You re being viewed under a magnifying glass right now, an unforgiving one.

If you ask your group for thoughts, and they begin to vent, that s OK. It s much better they complain inside your office than outside it and to you directly, rather than with each other. Once you gain comfort with your new role, opportunity to involve former peers should be top of your list. Remember how it felt to be in their shoes. How can you make differences they would want, that would benefit everyone?