I often respond to questions in an online forum, Quora.com. Sometimes I come across responses that I think are awesome. The one below, by Shannon Nealey was one of those awesome responses that I am sharing. She responded to another forum member’s question, “What advice do you have for managing coworkers after you’re promoted. This response shows a mature manner of dealing with the challenge of suddenly becoming your friends’ manager. No wonder she got the promotion. Keep up the great work Shannon.
Don’t start going on a power trip and let the power of the authority of your new position go to your head.
I remember a while back at this one place I worked. I was one of ten people on my team. We were cool with each other and laughed and joked together as we worked. We were like friends, almost.
Notice how I said “almost”?
Well anyway, a few months later, a supervisory position became available. Several of us applied for it. We all had the same opportunity and we each had a fair shot at the job. We were so supportive of each other, we made a pact that we would support whoever got the job.
Well, guess who got the job?
I did.
I later found out why I beat out my coworkers, some of whom had been on the job much longer than I had. The supervisor position required a bachelor degree, something my coworkers did not have.
I did.
So when my appointment was made official, I fully expected my coworkers to keep to the pact and respect the decision and support me in my new position. I looked forward to working with the team I’d worked with for so many months, the people I worked with, side by side.
I approached my new duties with a fresh outlook. I made a point to be firm but fair. When I made the assignments, I based my decisions on what I knew about my coworkers: their strengths, weaknesses, preferences, personalities and so on. I remained on the floor with my team, only spending one day a week in my new office.
I was met with so much opposition from my team. They refused to acknowledge my new status, refused to follow my instructions, ignored me when I asked them to do something.
It was frustrating, not to mention that it reflected poorly on me that my team wasn’t respecting my leadership. They yelled at me, refused to do their job, sat on their phones and ate chips and drank pop and socializing with each other.
Until that fateful day…
I had a particularly difficult time with a resistant team member. She flat out refused to do anything I told her to do; I had to get my supervisor to tell her to do her job, but it made me look like I couldn’t do my job.
So I did what I had to do. I wrote her up for refusing to do her job. I made a point to document each incident so it didn’t give the appearance of singling her out. I laid out the facts of the case, recorded the action taken in each incident and stressed out this had been an ongoing problem.
She was terminated.
All the others on my team turned against me. I had to call a meeting and stress to them that I had a job to do and it wasn’t personal. While I wasn’t able to discuss the situation about the terminated employee, I made a point to emphasize that we all had a job to do and I am simply doing mine and they needed to do theirs.
Then I asked them straight out, “Why all the resistance? I thought we were going to be supportive of whoever got the job. What happened?”
I listened to my team. I found out that they believed I got the job because of affirmative action or because I did something or whatever. I simply explained that management chose who they believed was most qualified and I played no role in the decision, which was true.
Deep down, I knew why my team members who applied, didn’t get the job. Six of us applied; I was the only one with a bachelor degree, three of them only had a high school diploma or GED and the others only went to the tenth or eleventh grade. I was reliable and trustworthy; my teammates were late all the time, called off a lot, took too many breaks and their productivity was low.
But each one believed they were the best one for the job.
They also thought that it would be easy street having me for a supervisor; they thought they could just sit on the clock and hang out and socialize and I would be on their side. I pointed out to them that we had jobs to do and people who counted on us to do our jobs and that it wasn’t fair that the other shifts and teams had to pick up their slack. I also made a point to tell them that Team Member would have been terminated by the higher ups anyway because of her attitude and poor performance and that is why she lost her job, not because I was out to get her. I stressed that if everyone just did their jobs and followed the rules, then they had nothing to worry about.
In the end, I had to transfer most of my team members to other teams. My new team fell into line and we got results. They respected my new position and just did their job and they felt comfortable coming to me for help if they needed it. They accepted instruction and respected my leadership and were mature enough to own up if they did something wrong. My team went on to reach the #1 spot in production and performance reviews were glowing.
My former team members eventually were culled. They just didn’t want to do the work, didn’t want to do their jobs. I eventually went on to become a manager.
The bottom line is, change nothing. You don’t want to give the impression that having a new title and authority changed you. Don’t make a point of throwing your weight around in a misguided effort to show who’s the boss. Treat your new subordinates with dignity and respect and only when you have to, then bring the hammer down.
Another thing: don’t ever let your title do your job for you. That is the laziest thing a manager can do. Don’t be one of those bosses who points at their badge/name tag and or says, “I’m the boss and you do what I say.” Don’t get all up in your feelings when a subordinate questions a decision you made; be willing to listen to another point of view and be open to constructive criticism; remember that there is room for improvement for you, as there is for the team. Don’t ever let yourself think that any job is beneath you; there is dignity in all work. Respect those under you and appreciate what they do for you.
Focus on being a leader, not a boss. Remember that there’s more to being a boss than being in charge and telling everyone what to do. With a great job, comes great responsibility and also great accountability. Don’t take credit for your team’s success while avoiding responsibility for their failure. Remember the one thing that all great leaders know: that you don’t know everything. You’re not going to always get it right; you won’t always have all the answers or the great ideas. Remember, you know some things; so do your subordinates. Be open and willing to listen. You’re going to make mistakes; own them instead of trying to save face, admit it and apologize. Be approachable so your subordinates feel like they can come to you with a problem and not only will you listen, you will take action, if applicable and rectify the matter amicably.
And more importantly, do not lead with fear. You will not get your employees’ best work if they are in constant fear for their jobs; their productivity will be low and their performance poor and they will simply quit rather than come to you when they have a problem. Remember, people don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses, managers with poor leadership. Be encouraging and supportive; it doesn’t cost anything to show appreciation. Don’t let the only time you talk to your employees be to complain or reprimand or correct; it’s perfectly okay to stop and praise an employee for a job well done. Remember that an employee who feels appreciated and respected will do more than what is required.
Aspire to be a leader. Don’t be just a boss.
