Getting promoted to become a
new boss is a very exciting
transition.
But at the same time,
there are some very unique
challenges,
especially if you are now
managing people who used to be
your peers.
And one of the key challenges
is how do you recalibrate
those relationships?
How do you navigate and manage
your former peers,
especially if they are not
receptive to your ideas or if
they haven't adjusted yet to
you as their supervisor?
There is a framework that I
use when that is the situation
happens,
a framework that where you can
truly gain trust and respect
from your former peers,
right?
Every single week I lead a
coaching mentorship program.
And in this coaching program a
lot of executives come to me
with problems like this.
And there was one person in
that,
my my mentorship program where
he was sharing that recently
he was promoted to supervisor.
Before that he was on a team
of eight peers and he was in
that department and recently
they promoted him.
And now those other eight
peers are now his direct
reports.
He's their supervisor.
And as a new manager,
a new team leader,
he saw some really significant
and important changes that he
wanted to make in the process.
And he had some new ideas on
how to reach the vision and
the mission of the company.
But as he was articulating
this vision and as he was
wanting to lead his teams and
manage their,
the projects that they were
on,
he noticed that really early
on in his new promotion,
his direct reports were not
receptive of his ideas.
They had a lot of pushback and
a lot of resistance to him
being their new boss.
And at the same time as he was
trying to share his ideas,
it came across feeling like
his direct reports were
wanting to override their
ideas and they weren't.
They had a completely brand
new perspective towards him,
right?
And so this kind of scenario
I've heard over and over again
when there was promotion to a
new boss,
especially when the direct
reports used to be colleagues
at the same level.
And now there's a
differential.
In my five step framework,
I'm gonna give you an acronym
so that it's easy to remember.
And the acronym is clout,
C L O U T.
So step number one,
step number one on how you
gain trust as a new boss for
your former peers.
Step number one is to
communicate the transition.
So what do we mean by that?
There has to be a formal
handing over of the position
to you because they were your
colleagues,
same level peers,
and now you're their
supervisor,
you're their manager,
you're their leader,
and they're reporting to you.
And that is recalibration of
relationship,
the recalibration gets
initiated by a formalizing of
that promotion,
right?
And sometimes companies have
that in their processes,
how they make the
announcement.
It could be from the human
resources department,
it could be from a senior
leadership team.
It could be your direct
manager making that transition
and that announcement.
But there's some sort of
formalization and articulation
of this is your new position,
you've been promoted,
right?
And so a lot of companies do
have that as a process.
However,
if you happen to be working
for a company that does not
really have a formalized
process to announce your
promotion,
then that responsibility lies
on you.
So how can you create
opportunities to let your
direct reports know that this
transition has been
formalized,
that this transition has been
final finalized,
and now you are their leader
and you're their manager?
How can you make that
announcement?
But how can you make it in
such a way where you're not in
there to all of a sudden
overhaul the way things used
to be done and you're not over
there as well to become a boss
over them.
But how can you articulate in
such a way that you are for
them,
that you continue to be for
them and now that you're in a
better position to help them
succeed?
Right?
So that is step number one,
C,
which starts with letter C,
and that is to communicate the
transition.
And more importantly,
as you're communicating your
transition,
don't forget as well to
communicate with them how you
plan to lead them and how you
plan to lead that team.
Step number two starts with a
letter L and L stands for
listen for their values.
As a new boss to your team,
your former peers,
it's really important to
understand what's important to
them.
So what I teach in my
mentorship program is to start
by having individual meetings
with your new direct reports,
one-on-one individual
meetings,
and make them a meeting about
them,
not about you.
Make it all about them.
And the key to making it about
them is to be able to utilize
very curiosity driven
questions,
but not just curiosity,
their caring and curious
questions.
What can you ask them in order
to understand what their top
priorities are?
What can you ask them to
understand what their
individual values are?
And more importantly,
what can you ask them to
understand for yourself as
their new boss?
How can you seek to understand
what they feel their life
purpose is or the direction
that they wanna take their
career path?
These are things that uncover
their core values as
individuals.
And it is important that you
understand what their core
values are as individuals so
that you can help to align
their individual values with
the values of the entire team
and more importantly,
the values of the entire
company.
So seek to really understand
and listen for what they share
with you in answer to your
questions of what their values
are.
And it might be also important
to help open up that
vulnerability and transparency
by going and stating what it
is.
For example,
call it out.
There could be a difficulty in
that transition.
It could be,
there could be some
awkwardness because you used
to be their peers,
there could be a adjustment
period,
right?
Ensure and call that out and
ensure that you understand
that there is an adjustment
period.
And that way you can
demonstrate that you really
get it,
that you're not expecting them
to by the snap of the finger
to be able to make that
adjustment.
That,
but when there are adjustments
that need to be made that you
are understanding and you are
very attuned to that,
to the need of meeting those
adjustments.
So make sure that this is an
opportunity for you to show
your attunement to their
experience of you previously
as their colleague and now as
a new boss.
So that is step number two,
listen for their values.
Step number three starts with
the letter o and O stands for
officiate a collaborative
cadence,
right?
So when you,
once you have listened for
their values from the previous
step,
now this is your the next
step,
number three,
which is to let them know to
be able to articulate and
demonstrate that you are here
to set them up for success.
Cuz now you know what is a top
priority for them.
You also understand what their
values are and the purpose
they have for their life,
and therefore the direction
they want their career to head
and which direction they wanna
go.
So now this is your
opportunity to be able to
connect the dots and to
articulate exactly how you are
going to set them up for
success.
And that's the goal here.
And this is what sets the
foundation for a collaborative
cadence.
So a collaboration is a
cadence.
And here's what I mean by
that.
In order to collaborate with
your direct reports who used
to be your peers,
this is where you're
establishing a cadence for,
for movement into greater and
greater collaboration.
At this point,
this is maybe your first week
or the first two weeks of the
formalization of you as their
new leader.
And now the cadence is how can
you ensure that that
meaningful relationship
continues to build momentum?
And that's why it's important
to have a cadence for meeting
with them on a regular basis
regularly,
which means predictably every
Monday morning or predictably
every third Friday afternoon
of the month and predictably,
for example,
every middle of the quarter of
the,
of the current quarter to
establish for yourself regular
communications within the
group.
And this is a cadence in which
they can know exactly what is
expected of them.
And this is a,
a cadence where there's
opportunities at each of these
meetings for in order to
articulate where they need
greater support,
where they need help from you
and where,
for example,
they are stuck.
And there's an opportunity
here in these cadences to
establish collaboration where
there is a celebration of
learning from failure.
This is your opportunity to
create that level of
transparency that each body,
each person on your team knows
what they are accountable for
and they know what everybody
else is accountable for and
they know what your
accountabilities are as well
and your responsibilities to
them as a leader.
And as you have this
collaborative cadence,
set that culture in terms of
being able to you for you to
be able to ask them for
feedback on how you're doing
as a leader.
Because as a leader,
one of the most,
one of the most top ask
questions that I get asked is,
how do I give my team feedback
when I see someone on my team
and they're not quite
performing their best or
someone on my team is kind of
resisting me as their leader?
How do I give them that type
of negative feedback?
And my answer is always the
same.
If you wanna be able to give
feedback to your team,
you must first be able to ask
for feedback about your
leadership.
So this is how you set a
foundation for a collaborative
cadence is first of all,
by by really clearly
delineating how you're gonna
set them up for success.
And more importantly,
by continuously asking for
feedback about your leadership
first.
And when you've asked for
feedback enough times and
they've given you enough
feedback,
enough times,
this is what creates the
transparency and the
vulnerability for you to be
able to give them feedback as
well.
Step number four starts with
the letter U and u stands for
uphold a culture of
performance.
As a new team leader and as a
new supervisor,
be very careful on how you set
the culture.
It's most important to make it
a culture of performance.
And what that means is that
every person on your team
holds their own
responsibilities and the
outcomes they are expected to
produce for you and for the
company at large.
So when it comes to upholding
that culture performance,
there are three ingredients
for setting up that culture.
And the three starts with with
stands for o m a.
O is outcomes.
Outcomes.
And then you have metrics,
and then you have
accountability.
O m a.
Those are the three
ingredients to set up a
culture of performance.
Let's start with outcomes.
Outcomes means you are very
clear in what the targets are,
what the objectives are,
what the outcomes are gonna
look like for every level,
every timeframe that you are
in charge of.
It could be one year
timeframe,
it could be one quarter
timeframe,
monthly timeframes,
weekly timeframes,
and a timeframe of tomorrow in
a few days out.
So ensure that you are clear
on those objectives for your
direct reports as well,
going all the way out and
drawing it back closer and
closer to the day,
the day after.
So those are objectives.
The second one,
we have the objectives.
The second one is metrics.
Metrics means that there are
key dashboard and there are
key metrics and things that
get measured in order for you
and your team reports,
your direct reports to know if
how far they are progressing,
if they are progressing and
far how far they have gone
towards those goals and
objectives too.
And more importantly,
the metrics are important
because that's how you know
you and your team know
objectively if you have
arrived at those objectives,
if the key milestones have
been achieved and crossed.
So that's why the second
ingredient metrics is
important.
Which leads us to the third
one down here,
which is accountability.
Accountability means who is
responsible for this outcome,
who is responsible for that
particular task or that
particular milestone.
And the accountabilities one
can be held accountable when
every person on your team and
yourself included,
knows what everybody else is
accountable for,
which is a high degree of
transparency,
right?
And so when you have this,
when you uphold a culture of
performance,
it is simply around having
those routines and processes
around those three things.
Outcomes,
metrics,
and accountability.
If you're a new team leader
and you're listening to this
and you're recognizing that
you know how,
how on a high level what to
do,
but there are a lot of nuances
in your particular particular
team or maybe there's a
history and a certain level of
culture and politics that you
are dealing with,
if that is you and you want
some help in how do I navigate
my particular situation,
then I invite you to work with
me below in the description,
the very first link is an
application for that,
my mentorship program that I
talked about earlier.
And this is where every single
week I provide live training
on how do you navigate through
culture,
through politics as well,
and how do you become a new
boss?
That one where your team
respects and trusts your
leadership.
So if you are serious about
producing that outcome to be
able to be effective leader
and to keep continuously
rising in your leadership,
then click the link below,
send in your application,
and I look forward to working
with you on the inside.
And step number five starts
with the letter t and T stands
for tend to your new
relationships.
So let's go back to the story
about my member,
my client from my mentorship
program.
Once he started to build this
collaborative cadence,
once he started to articulate
how he planned to lead his
teams,
once he met one-on-one
individual individually with
all members of his direct
reports,
and once he was able to
communicate the vision and the
mission and help them align
what's most important to the
values of the company.
Once he did that within the
first month,
in less than one month of his
new promotion and to his new
boss,
the team of direct reports
already started to open up to
him.
They already started to
receive his ideas and some of
them started to become true
believers excited about the
vision and the changes he was
proposing.
So the only step that remained
was to tend to his new
relationships.
So what that means is that
after you've become promoted
to a new boss,
you will have new peers,
you will have new managers,
you will have a completely
different level of executive
leaders that you are reporting
to.
And don't forget to tend to
those relationships to build
meaningful relationships with
those individuals,
your new peers as well,
because this is what allows
you to build alliances sooner
rather than later.
And when you start to tend to
those relationships,
you are tending to those
relationships in a completely
different level as a
supervisor and a leader of
teams.
So it's very easy to caught up
af to be caught up after new
promotion,
to be so caught up in focusing
on your direct reports and
trying to manage those
relationships beneath you.
And it's so easy to get so
caught up in that that we tend
to neglect the peers,
our new level peers,
and our new level managers
that are above us.
That used to be more than one
degree of separation,
but now they're directly above
us.
So don't forget to tend to
those relationships.
Cuz once the person in my
mentorship program started to
now attend to those
relationships,
this is where he had other
managers who were peers in
different departments also get
excited about how he was
leading his teams.
And he became kind of like a
spokesperson in the company in
helping other managers to
develop their teams as well as
well,
once they've noticed how well
and how well operated his
teams were,
right?
So those are the five steps on
how you can manage your former
peers after a promotion.
Remember,
it's a five step process,
C L O U T.
So now that you are a new
boss,
congratulations for stepping
up in your leadership level.
As I mentioned before,
you're gonna have senior
management who you are going
to be reporting to,
that you're responsible and
your accountabilities towards
senior management.
And it's important to build
those relationships.
So what do you do next if you
are serious about becoming
effective as a new leader?
Then I have another video
where I talked about how do
you communicate with your
senior management as a team
leader?
And that video is coming up
right next.
Stay tuned and I'll see you
there.