Three steps to transition from peer to leader

When you're promoted over people who have always been friends (or rivals), the power relationship is inevitably altered. There will be awkward moments as you transition from team member to team leader. But there are ways to ease the shift. Here's how to go about it:

1 Meet one-on-one with each member of the team. By having your first boss-subordinate conversations individually, you’ll be able to personalise the message and be more candid than you can be in a group setting.

Spend considerable time in each meeting listening to your new direct report. Ask questions such as: “Can you take me through your objectives and where things are?” This will allow them to relax and realise you haven’t transformed into a maniacal manager.

2 Plan your first team meeting. If possible, try to make it longer than normal and in a unique setting, such as a conference centre outside of town or a room in your office with couches instead of tables. Start by discussing the purpose of the team. But this is the chance to evolve the mandate in accordance with changing times.

By making some modifications to the goals or priorities of the team, you will demonstrate that you’re not just a steward of the former boss’s plan but a leader in your own right.

3 Spend some time explaining how you like to operate and what your rules of the road are going to be. If you can distil your philosophies into two or three guiding principles it’s really useful.

For example, if you know that the team tends to be somewhat passive-aggressive, be explicit about your expectation that concerns be addressed directly. That way, if you need to deal with bad behaviour later you've set the precedent from the start. – Copyright Harvard Business Review 2015