Hurray! You’ve just been promoted. Congratulations! Now go out and celebrate. GIve yourself a pat on the back and a well deserved night out. On Monday, you’ll be facing a whole new ballgame once you get back to work.

It’s not Monday yet but over the weekend, a dawning realization comes over you. The team that you will be managing is your former team – a team composed of your lunch mates and drinking buddies. You have an easygoing, friendly relationship with these guys. But now, well… you’re kind of the bad guy. While you’re really not the bad guy and do not want to be seen as the bad guy, you know you’re going to have to make some hard and unpopular decision for the sake of the business. But you also have more than few good ideas to share. How are you going to get them to take your lead? The answer is: very carefully.

Give yourself a timeline:

Do not expect to start a project  in the next 30 days. Ease into it and don’t start changing things right out of the gate. You must use this time to reframe yourself as the leader. You have to make sure to set boundaries. You should keep your relationship strictly business. Starting with limiting those karaoke nights and those bar hopping soirees. You should conduct yourself more professionally anyway, so drunken singing will really ruin  your reputation here. Working lunches are fine – use them to  catch up  and nurture your relationship with your friends and forge new allies.

Earned it:

I’m sure if you ask anybody, they’ll say they saw your promotion coming. I’m sure you expected it to,  having worked so hard to get to where you are now. I’m sure you deserve it. And unless, you’re the child of the company owner, everybody knows you’re a top performer and that you’re the most deserving candidate for that promotion.

And you did earn the promotion. Now it’s time to gently remind everyone why you got promoted in the first place. While being a manager is new, there are parts of this job that you know so well, like the process, the people, the numbers. Nobody knows about the accounts more than you do. You have the credibility to lead! Show them how much you know and you’ll silence even the critics. Your knowledge and skills are what got you this promotion in the first place. Now is NOT the time to be shy about  being the subject matter expert or the expert in your field. People follow those who know what they’re doing.  You’ve got this!

That small room called acceptance:

You must accept that your relationship with your colleagues will change. There will sometimes be resistance and probably resentment, especially if you were competing for the same position. But you have to believe that you have been chosen because you are the most qualified person for the job. Know that if you choose to delegate tasks, you can still count on these very same people to perform, not for you, but with you. Make sure though that you are fair and not just pick the best projects and assign them to friends. Give others a chance to prove themselves, too.

Congratulations again on your promotion! These steps are more like guidelines because, as we all know, everyone has a different managerial style. So, have you ever been managed by a friend?  Have you managed people you deem as friends? Are you ready to take the lead?

Written by Jaie O.- The Help