Three Tasks to Ease the Transition from Peer to Manager

Michele Markey is Vice President of Training Operations for SkillPath, a leading provider of personal and professional development training.

Young professionals often face the questions, “What do I want in my career, and how do I create a path to get there?” For some, the answer is in making smaller moves into supervisory positions, while others see themselves in a leadership role in the C-suite. Building experience developing subject matter expertise and learning technical, strategic and people skills will help move you ahead in your career.

As you climb up the career ladder, chances are you will be promoted or moved into a position where you will manage your former team members. You may even consider some of these people to be friends. Your transition into management can be as uncomfortable for your colleagues as it is for you. While you may want to maintain these friendships, it will be difficult as their manager. Setting clear boundaries can make this transition easier for everyone.

Here are the three ways to establish boundaries with your former peers and more easily move into your management role.