Workforce Learning

A newsletter by Alice Waagen, PhD
(May-June 2009)

Being a good manager is all about cultivating good relationships. Your relationships with your boss, peers, direct reports, customers, and suppliers—all reflect how good a manager you are.

Yet all too often, managers don’t realize they need to reestablish their professional relationships every time they are promoted or move into a new management role. I preach this message whenever I talk with new leaders, and really drive home the point that getting a promotion means more than just a fancy new title and (hopefully) a pay increase. It means renegotiating how they work with everyone they come into contact with.

Indeed, each rung up on the corporate ladder requires a re-shuffling of the relationship deck — as former peers are now direct reports, and a former boss may now be a peer. Customers or client groups may change too. Although this may seem perfectly obvious, rarely do I encounter managers who consciously plan how they will reset their relationships.

So the next time you find yourself in this situation, try the following.

How to rebuild your interactions with others
1. Wipe the slate clean. How you work and interact with everyone on your team needs to be reevaluated so you can be effective in your new role. Be sure not to carry old assumptions or habits into your new job until you have questioned their purpose and value. You may have had lunch for years with a former peer who is now a direct report. To continue the lunch habit might be construed as showing favoritism now that you are the boss.

2. Clarify expectations of your priorities from all around you. Starting with your new boss, peers and direct reports, ask and get clear answers to the following questions:
a. What should be my top three priorities in the next 6 to 12 months?
b. How will you measure success for me in this job?
c. What are your expectations for communication? Face to face? Electronic? How often? About what?

3. What are the ground rules governing our interaction? People who rely on vague performance objectives miss the wealth of information that comes from asking these questions directly. Don’t fall into this trap. Be clear, and insist on clarity from those around you.

4. Take a new look at non-work interactions with your colleagues, such as attending happy hour or participating in a book club together. If you had a social relationship with a person you work with, sit down with this person to calmly and clearly redefine your interactions. Although it may seem painful, you may need to put the relationship on hold until such time as there is more distance between you at work. Better to be clear about this than to leave your friend hurt or perplexed.

Bottom line
Our interpersonal relationships develop over time. Behavior becomes routine, routine becomes habit. But successful managers analytically examine these relationships periodically to make sure that they continue to add value and not impede getting the job done.

About Alice Waagen’s Workforce Learning

Workforce Learning LLC is a leadership development company that provides managers and C-level executives with the skills and knowledge they need to build a more productive work environment. Since founding the company in 1997, owner Alice Waagen, PhD, has developed highly effective leadership programs and coaching workshops that teach the people in charge how to motivate and inspire employees. “Research shows that the single reason most organizations fail to thrive is a lack of strong people skills among those at the top,” Alice says. “We work to ensure organizations are healthy from the top down, and ultimately if an organization has happy, energized, effective employees they find it reflected in the bottom line.” For more information, visit www.workforcelearning.com.