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7 Actions to Manage Your Peers After Promotion – Make the transition easier & quicker · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Managing your peers after promotion is a real challenge.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: This transition from peer to manager is tough for both parties.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: There will be resentment and resistance from at least one member of the team.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of people that struggle with change and others that will be upset about friendships changing.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: It takes time and work to change the perceptions, the behaviour and the relationship dynamics to transition from peer to manager.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing positive steps that you can take to make transitioning from peer to manager easier and quicker is super useful and reduces the stress and frustration you feel and gives you a great confidence boost.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: The seven actions to manage your peers after promotion to make the transitioning easier and quicker are firstly promote yourself.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, focus on helping rather than leading the team.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Third, book in one-to-one meetings.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, set clear expectations and ground rules.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, empower your people by playing to their strengths.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: 6.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tackle resistance head on.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And seventh, ask your manager for advice.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Managing former peers takes courage and confidence.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't make this transition from peer to manager any harder or longer than it needs to be.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Learn how to manage your peers after promotion and you'll be a lot happier and more confident.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And your team will also be a lot happier and more confident.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a 20-year management career working in amazing companies like Innocent Drinks, EY, Williams Lee, and many others.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training shares people management expertise, resources and courses so you can become a better manager quicker and help your team deliver a lot more.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do visit us at enhance.training and use the free resources and the free webinars to quicker develop your authentic management approach, build your skills and deliver more from a motivated and happy team.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you find this podcast useful, please share it with friends and colleagues.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The first action when you start managing former peers is to promote yourself.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Changing your mental approach to your former peers is super important.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: You no doubt will have friendships with your former peers.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: You will have socialized with them after work and enjoyed the office banter with them as equals.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Many newly promoted managers don't want to lose or change these relationships.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is perfectly natural.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Promotion to manager requires you to change these relationships if you want to be an effective manager.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Create more space in the relationship.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go socialise in the same way as you did before.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Think for yourself as the manager, not the friend.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: The other key part of promoting yourself is the work you do.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Managing others is a completely new role and it takes a different set of skills and a different approach.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You'll need to make time to learn these skills.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Delegate some of your work to your team to free up, say, 15 to 30% of your time.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to do the manager role as well as continue to do everything you did while a team member is going to end in a disaster or a lot of late nights.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you start managing others, only a small portion of your role will be managing, while the rest will remain as team contributor.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Be clear in your mind which is which.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Push yourself out of your comfort zone and create time to work as a manager.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Work on promoting yourself mentally when you get your first manager title.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: The second action to manage your peers after promotion is to focus on helping rather than leading the team.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: This may seem counterintuitive.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean surely I've been promoted to lead the team, you're probably saying to yourself.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you have.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: As a new manager, resist the temptation to exercise the power of your position.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Leading others is a responsibility, and your ability to manage is going to be judged on how the team performs, the team culture, staff turnover, etc.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is all about the team now.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The best way to earn the team's respect and trust is to work hard to help the team.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the things that you should be focused on include firstly setting direction and expectations for the team as a whole and for each individual.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: More on this in a bit.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Second, protecting the team from external pressures so they can work in an efficient, effective and enjoyable way, i.e.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: they're not pulled around all the time by unimportant requests.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And third, removing problems and dealing with the issues so team members can hit their targets.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And fourth, supporting and developing team members.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: When it is clear that you are helping the team in your role as manager, team members will respect and appreciate you, which makes your job of managing a lot easier.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: The third action to manage your peers after promotion is to book in one-on-one meetings with each team member.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Once you've worked out the direction of the team and your manager is happy with how you want to explain this to the team, book in one-on-one meetings with each team member individually.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Explain the team direction and the why behind the team direction.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Explain how you see your role and what you hope to do and achieve to help each team member.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them about their concerns and listen to what they tell you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Plan out what is needed to address valid concerns and visibly take action.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if team members don't open up to you with their concerns, be patient.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: They may be waiting to see how you help them and the team, or waiting to see if you're going to be a micromanaging dictator.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Keep asking and keep working on helping the team.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: These team members holding back will begin to trust you are going to be a good thing for them and start opening up.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Use your one-on-one meetings to set the tone and set expectations for each individual.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Explain why meeting these expectations are important in terms of the team doing well, which in turn means everyone in the team does well career-wise.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Share the team goals with each individual and the team overall.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Even better is to ask the team to help you define the goals and how the team is going to achieve those goals.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: This creates ownership of the goals throughout the team.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Explain what you expect from each person.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Creating clear job descriptions and clear formal objectives for each person is a key step in this process.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: If team members don't know exactly what is expected of them, how can they deliver against those expectations?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And how are you going to assess their performance objectively without clear goals or objectives?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: The harder part of setting expectations and ground rules for the team is managing your own decisions, actions and behaviours.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: The team will be keeping a very close eye on all three.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: If they're aligned to what you tell them, they will do as you ask.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: If your decisions, actions and behaviors are not aligned, the team will follow what you do rather than what you say.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So live the rules you set out if you want them to be followed.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth action to manage your peers after promotion is to empower your people and play to their strengths.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: As an ex-peer, you are in a brilliant position to know and understand your team members' strengths.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: A big advantage over an external hire, for example.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: A big fear of most employees is having a controlling micromanaging boss.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: This type of boss reduces the team members to only doing tasks, you know, not far off being a robot, which understandably is not appealing to many.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Empowering your team members requires confidence, trust, and your ability to change how you exercise control.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Control the problems your team members are working on.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Control the broad parameters that they actually need to work within.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Empower your team members by letting them make decisions, to solve problems by themselves, by giving them responsibility and by holding them accountable to deliver.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Empower your team members by focusing on how best to help each individual do an amazing job.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: By getting resources in place at the right time, by removing roadblocks and problems, and by reducing distractions.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Delegate work carefully to each team member.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do your best to delegate to those with the best skill sets and experience for each task.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And delegate to provide great learning and growth opportunities with the right level of support for each person and task.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Play to team member strengths and the team overall be happier and a lot more productive.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: The sixth action to manage your peers after promotion is to tackle resistance head on.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: You will encounter resistance and pushback from at least one team member.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It might be overt such as publicly disagreeing with team direction, goals, or your requests.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or it might be more subtle, such as missing deadlines, doing poor quality work, gossiping, and putting you down behind your back.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: If other team members applied for the management position, they will be disappointed they didn't get it instead of you.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Tackle the resistance head on.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: In your one-on-one meetings with the team member, state the issues that you're seeing and ask them what should be done about them.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: An example of starting this conversation might include I've noted that you have some strong objections to the goals the team has agreed on.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was not really sure why you're objecting.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can we discuss this in more detail now?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: You might listen to their reply and then ask, if appropriate, something like this.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I feel that it is me as manager that you are objecting to, rather than the goals.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Please can we discuss your concerns and I'll do what I can to address them.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Seek to understand what the problems or issues are that the other person has with you.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be patient, you know, if they don't tell you initially, keep bringing up the issues.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Talking through the issues with the other person massively increases the chances of solving the issues compared to ignoring them as a manager.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: The seventh action to manage your peers after promotion is to ask your manager for advice.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your manager is there to help you adjust so you can become an effective manager as quickly as possible.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is in their interests as much as yours.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Try to overcome any challenges on your own first.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you are struggling, then it is a sensible to go and ask for help.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that in some cultures asking for help can give the impression that you are not coping.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your manager will figure out there are issues eventually.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is so much better to be proactive in dealing with them.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Get advice and coaching so that you can overcome the challenges quicker and more easily.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want issues to get bad enough that your manager feels they need to step in on your behalf, which will not help you with your team.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid to ask for help.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you've just been promoted, asking for help and advice is expected.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Make the most of this window to gain the most experience you can and overcome any challenges you are facing.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: In summary, being promoted to a management position is very exciting and equally daunting.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you have to manage your peers after promotion, promoting yourself and changing the relationships you have with the team members is usually the biggest challenge of leading your former peers.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Make this transition from peer to manager as quick and painless as possible by following the actions we've discussed today.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: As a recap, the actions for how to manage your former peers are firstly, promote yourself, secondly, focus on helping rather than leading the team.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Third, book in one-on-one meetings.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, set clear expectations and ground rules, fifth, empower your people by playing to their strengths.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: 6.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Tackle resistance head-on.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And seventh, ask your manager for advice.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on the 7 actions to manage your peers after promotion, please drop me an email at support at enhance.training and I'll get back to you.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to visit us at enhance.training and take a look at all the free resources to help you become a better manager quicker.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.