{"id":6973,"date":"2021-06-24T16:49:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T23:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2024-10-11T13:38:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T20:38:34","slug":"how-to-manage-former-peers-as-a-new-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2021\/06\/24\/how-to-manage-former-peers-as-a-new-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"How to manage former peers as a new manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As daunting as it can seem, here’s how to manage former peers that can perpetuate a healthy team dynamic.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"how<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With your new promotion, congratulations are in order. But so is trepidation: You are now faced with the precarious challenge of figuring out how to manage former peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can feel the heat rising from your situation in merely thinking<\/em> about it. Perhaps some of your former peers were vying for the role that you now hold. You’re concerned that they’ll be ambivalent in their work \u2013 or that folks might even try to undermine you right out of the gate. Gaining their support (let alone the rest of the team’s!) feels dubious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a precarious challenge, indeed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the delicate nature of your team dynamics, there is<\/em> a way for you, as a new manager<\/a>, to create an environment where your team feels encouraged and energized for the work ahead \u2013 rather than defeated or threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are two key areas I recommend considering first <\/em>for how to manage former peers\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ll be tempted to overlook the one-on-one meeting. Don’t.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Do you feel the spotlight on you? As new managers, our attention often becomes heightened in moments when we feel all eyes are on us. We watch our own words and actions more carefully when we know we’re being watched. As a result, our all-team meetings<\/a>, staff meetings, and project meetings (i.e., meetings where the whole<\/em> team is there) are the moments we tend to pay a lot of care and attention to and prepare extensively ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in how to manage former peers, we often forget that the moments of 1:1 connection \u2013 our one-on-one meetings \u2013 are when the spotlight shines the brightest. Especially as a new manager, our former peer will be extra keen to understand how you will be approaching your new role. They’ll be looking to see your tone, your presumptions \u2013 and will be basing their own tone and assumptions off of yours. And they’ll be looking for this during the one-on-one meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you’re smug, vague, and ill-prepared for your one-on-one meetings, you can only imagine how a former peer might feel discouraged and even bitter that you are in this role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, if you come to the one-on-one meeting with humility, openness to wanting to support your former peer, and are prepared with specific questions, your former peer will likely leave that one-on-one meeting feeling content and excited about you being in this new role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, when it comes to how to manage former peers, here’s how you might structure the agenda of your first one-on-one meeting with a former peer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intro<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n