Until Brad’s’s last promotion, he just had to keep his boss happy. He was a Director in Community Outreach in a biotech company, and did an outstanding job. Brad kept his boss, Lauren, informed of his projects, his successes, and obstacles. He and Lauren had a good working relationship and if there was a change in priorities, they effectively negotiated and communicated. Brad received useful feedback from Lauren, which he felt was designed to make him even more effective. Lauren’s career had followed a similar track so she was a particularly good mentor.
As the company grew, eventually there were four more people providing different aspects of Community Outreach and communication, public relations and digital media. Lauren’s other responsibilities had grown as well so it was time to promote someone from within. Brad was the natural choice, having the strongest knowledge of the function, and a good working relationship with Lauren. She would continue to be his boss.
When being promoted, whether from supervisor to manager, or manager to director, one of the biggest surprises can be the change in relationships with others.
Surprise: Team is Redefined
Brad’s team is now his team of peers, the other managers who report to Lauren. Following his promotion, he will have direct reports, and there is a tendency to regard direct reports as the primary team. But peer relationships need to be cultivated. Not cultivated instead of spending time with those team members who report to him, but in addition. He learned this the hard way, at review time. He was used to driving towards his own goals, and was relentless in meeting deadlines. In the process he alienated other managers in the department.
Lauren marked Brad’s performance surprisingly low on “works well with others.” His drive for outcomes had never been a problem before. After all he had very good communication skills and relationship building skills. While they had had some conversations over the year about him stepping on toes, he always felt it was in support of a good outcome.
Peer Review
Whether or not a company has a formal peer review process, in which peers submit feedback on each other, working well with others is often a surprise performance metric at a certain level of promotion. This new expectation isn’t only about “being nice,” it is about raising the bar on understanding the contributions of others, and learning to perceive a more strategic view. Until then, many professionals can do a very good job within a specific department, receiving guidance from the manager but not really needing to understand the priorities of other functions, how to negotiate limited resources, or how each contributes to the whole.
Recommended steps
To foster good peer relationships following promotion:
- Show curiosity: learn about peer manager’s top priorities and biggest obstacles
- Forge a good working relationship: be a good listener, be a sounding board
- Be responsive to requests from other departments – especially low hanging fruit (answer phone calls and emails promptly, pitch in for urgent problem solving)
- Reflect your understanding of peer’s points until they confirm you have understood them
- Defer disagreements until you have a full understanding of others’ point of view and needs, and can summarize accurately
- Introduce differences after acknowledging some shared element (we both want quality work; we’re both invested in the company’s success; we both want to motivate our staff; we both want to raise the bar on productivity; we both hate layoffs.) Differences are often about how something gets done, not necessarily the what
- Insist rarely and reasonably – then your voice will more likely be heard
Use these guidelines to deal with one of promotion’s big surprises: peers weighing in on your performance.
What was your big surprise when promoted?