Navigating Awkward Promotions: How Do You Handle Becoming the Boss of Your Peers?

Navigating Promotions and Team Dynamics

The end of the appraisal period always brings many new surprises for all of us, sometimes pleasant and sometimes not so amusing. One such surprise comes when, among all your peers, you are suddenly given a promotion, and the situation becomes a little awkward for everyone involved. In fact, it also changes the camaraderie dynamics, especially for people who now report to you.

Share your stories... How will you tackle your peers who have now become your team members? How will you bring in the change?

Good one! Here's an experience shared by a friend who has recently been promoted. He has been working with this team for the past two years. Although he was chosen to train them on several small projects, their official designations remained the same. Behaviorally, he is from Goa, so he is friendly and amiable. When he was informed about his promotion, he was given a list of do's and don'ts with his team. Though there was quite a celebration when it was announced, he is still facing unspoken issues. Some are taking him casually, while others openly doubt his capability. Strangely, all this while, they trusted him with escalations and issues. It's obvious that the initial shock is yet to sink in.

It would be interesting to see how this situation develops. I look forward to hearing more from our members.

Regards,
Cite Contribution

Well, getting promoted within the team and suddenly having team members reporting to you is obviously not an easy task to accomplish successfully. One would experience frictions and issues even over trivial things that were non-issues when you were part of the team. Apart from that, the competition to prove one's inability and incompetence to lead will increase in the initial phase. It requires a lot of tact, understanding, patience, time, and strategic planning to truly establish your position as a leader – someone whom your team members look up to and willingly cooperate with.

Regards

That is one significant reason why smart organizations and large organizations rarely promote anyone and keep them in the same team. In fact, their efforts are always focused on trying to relocate the promotee. Because when a person starts afresh with another team as their boss, that is the only way they know that person - as a boss! And equally importantly, smart people usually try to get a promotion with each job change. That way, the entire organization only knows them in their new capacity. How often do you see someone resign, join somewhere else, and then return with a double promotion from where they were when they resigned the first time around!

And if you think about it, that's how nature likes it too - especially with the big cats, bears, bovines, etc. Each time a male reaches puberty, he has to leave his parent group. He must go into the wilderness and set up a whole new order all over again, or engage the alpha male from another group until one surrenders or perishes.

Hence the saying: Managers are appointed, leaders stake their claim!

Dear Gaurav, You are quite right. That's what usually happens, though some people may be promoted to intermediate positions where they are not involved in appraising their ex-peers. I have come across a few cases like that both in industry and academia. In a higher education institution, when a lady was promoted, it took more than 12 months for the peers to recognize that the right person had been promoted. The lady in question kept her cool and produced results; she responded and did not react to back-biting statements made by others.

In a multi-site retail firm, a person from a different geographical location was promoted as the manager to avoid the animosity that could have arisen if one of the assistant managers had been promoted. I also have come across persons leaving a company and rejoining it after a couple of years at a much higher salary and position than held before.

Though I am digressing, I found a good piece on Internal Promotion vs appointing an external candidate in a consultancy firm at Do you promote up or recruit in? | Analysis | Recruiter <link updated to site home> (Search On Cite | Search On Google)

Have a nice day.

Regards, Simhan
A retired academic in the UK.