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How to Set Up A Newly Promoted Manager / Number 2 For Success
July 24, 2007

I have heard a number of stories recently from friends and acquaintances on both sides of a particular coin : the manager who has just been promoted, and the staff who now find themselves with a new boss. Unfortunately, none of the stories I’ve heard have been good ones. Tales of poorly communicated job roles, reporting lines, and reasons for change seemed to be a common theme in these tales of woe. One man who had recently been promoted into the Number 2 slot in his company – subsequently taking on 5 direct reports was so disenchanted with the way his promotion was communicated and handled  by his own boss that he quit.

How can this happen? It’s tempting to believe that you really are doing someone a huge favor when you give them a hard-earned promotion. But promotion of one employee represents change for all the others – and that change is particularly pronounced for employees who now find themselves reporting to your newly promoted Rock Star. For example – how do you handle another employee who might have thought he or she was in line for the job?

Promoting someone is a wonderful thing to do for an employee, for yourself and for your business. But handled poorly and without due consideration for the impact of the change it can completely backfire on you. Here are 10 tips for making sure that not only is the promotion a smooth transition, but that you use it as an opportunity to build the team even further.

1. Before announcing the promotion, talk with the employee concerned and establish the new role and expectations of performance very clearly, ensuring he/she is up to the job and that you both understand the measures of success and how you will work together. Also, remember it IS a promotion, so take the opportunity to praise them for their work and tell them how much you value them, hence the promotion. For an employee to feel good about a promotion, they should feel that they have genuinely earned it and that it’s not just being handed to them as a way of dumping some of your responsibilities onto them!

2. Communicate the promotion to the entire team at once. If you do it one by one, it will reach the third person before you’ve finished with the second. Timing helps you control the communication and the message. Bring everyone together.

3. When communicating the promotion, let everyone know why you did it  – in other words, recognize this person publicly (but don’t overdo it. Please). Ensure you communicate the new reporting relationships. This is critical. Some people who reported to you may now report to your newly promoted manager.

4. Handle any ‘special cases’ immediately before or after the formal group communication: long standing employees, sensitive employees, relatives who work in the company would fit into this category. You will instinctively know if someone requires “special handling” about a change like this, and your willingness to do so can make the difference between success and failure.

5. Once the promotion is in place, redirect any questions or issues that now fall under the purview of your new manager to him/her, so that you empower them and simultaneously train people not to come to you anymore for the answers.

6. Don’t be tempted to interfere, contradict or undermine your new manager. If you disagree or have a question, talk about it with him/her in private rather than demonstrating a visible lack of trust in front of other employees. You could inadvertently end up damaging their reputation, especially if you have other employees who are waiting for them to fail…

7. Stay in touch with your new manager – daily, weekly, whatever works best for your business. Get and give updates. Use the meetings as coaching opportunities to teach what you know and advise on issues you have previously handled that might be new for them. Be supportive and open.

8. Be sure to let key customers and suppliers know about the promotion – changing their behavior can often be one of the hardest issues to overcome for those who may feel that they have a “personal relationship” with you and wear that as a badge of honor.

9. Don’t disengage completely from the team – even if you’re not handling a lot of things that you did previously, you do still need to be in touch with what’s going on, and particularly if you are the founder, your people will identify with you very strongly and for some you may be the reason that they stay.

10. Use the free time that having a Number 2 brings wisely – to grow, develop and improve your business. Your staff need to see that you promoted someone so that you could go and do work that helps to secure the future of the business and with it, their careers.

It’s all too easy to just promote someone by having a quick conversation with them and leaving everyone else to find out about it. Those of you who have experience in these situations might be horrified at such a thought, but it happens a LOT in small businesses particularly.  These 10 tips will help you handle promotions knowing that you are doing at least the basics to set your new manager up for success.

Posted by Alan Ibbotson on July 24, 2007 | Comments (1)