7 Responses

1. More info please ?
   Are you the lucky individual or manager of….?

   Managing former peers ?

   What needs analysis has been done so far ?

   Peter

2. Reply to Peter
   Hi Peter,

   I am niether, I am researching this to assist individuals within my organisation who are in this position.

   No TNA has been conducted to date.

   Kind Regards,

   Antoinette

3. transition from team member to team leader
   Hmm – not often a happy transition as you’re clearly well aware! The individual concerned needs to be very clear which side of the fence he/she’s on and the repercussions of that (i.e. what’ll likely happen if he/she stays as ‘one of the boys/girls’ – or if he/she becomes one of ‘the management’) – I think they’ll need a good Mentor from within the company – preferably someone who has already done this successfully, or a manager with good coaching credentials (either inherent or formally learned). Maybe a coach too if budget allows?
   Good luck!
   best wishes
   Andie
   Andie Hemming

4. Also
   I’m with Andi, and also:

   – make an assessment of current skills vs what is required. This needs to cover technical skills, eg financial, as well as behavioural. If you have a competence framework, use that. If not, look at job descriptions, people doing the job, role models etc.

   – put together a plan to address these and, in an ideal world, execute it BEFORE going to management (well, I can dream, can’t I?!)

   Good luck

   Peter

   http://www.authentic-dev.co.uk

5. Another thought ..
   Hi Antoinette, I wondered if individuals facing this situation should be assigned a mentor, preferably someone who also manages teams or has had such experience? This would be a valuable factor in helping newly promoted team leaders adjust to their responsibilities and also help with the wrinkles needed to get up to speed quicker.

6. Thank you
   Hi All,

   Thanks for your assistance with this inquiry, it’s just what I needed to get started.

   Clare, those are my thoughts exactly. I am planning to assign a mentor/manager who has been through this transition to guide and assist the newly appointed supervisor along the journey that lies ahead.

   Kind Regards,

   Antoinette

7. how to lead
   This is indeed a classic problem and it all comes down to people’s psychological state, egos, and envy.

   So I suggest any person who wants to go through this to have a look at literature on handling diplomacy and the political side of the affair.

   Naturally the new leader should not boast about his/her leadership, but needs to get the team to accept his/her new position. Can be tricky if there were contenders. Above all, the new manager should always use the help from the his own boss to get everyone in line. That same boss can be the mentor as well.

   I have explored many of these subtle issues in the context of strategy games and the results are interesting. For example, in a classic strategy game such as Risk, those players who boast about their previous success or status are more likely to lose because other players keep attacking them all the time (much like a boasting manager). On the other hand, those who focus on the goals and are willing to look normal simply pull enough levers to win everyone’s alliance and then go on to win the game. Players don’t even realise what happened to them. Back to the main subject of the team, the team members should be led in such a way that they just see the benefit of cooperating and moving on without the leader being in their face making them feel inferior.

   Hope this helps.