Managing Former Peers
Posted on May 10, 2024 by Loreta Vatamanu, One of Thousands of Performance Coaches on Noomii.
Ideas on how you can best tackle the relationship with your former peers after a promotion.
To the newly promoted managers reading this post: if this is you, then you are now most likely managing your former colleagues. In some cases, some of them have even competed against you for this new role.
So, how do you strike the right balance between maintaining a good relationship and exerting your authority? Here are some tips:
1) Use your one-to-one meetings as a space to build the relationship with the team members: ask for their feedback and opinions, and provide space for them to vent. Listen to what they have to say.
2) Use what you know about your former peers: their strengths, weaknesses, and work preferences when delegating work and allocating tasks.
3) Communicate clearly about the change in your role and how it affects your working relationship. This helps set boundaries and reset the relationship based on the new context.
Now, take a moment to reflect:
How does your daily interaction with your former peers differ from when you were colleagues?
How can you help them adjust to the new situation, and how can you help yourself?
What else could you do to properly manage these new dynamics?
