- Act your part – the management, your new job role, and your past workplace buddies expect you to act different, do that – don't be overwhelmed with the prospect of alienating friends
- Know that it is natural for employees to resist change, so don't think that the crowd acting stone-faced is out to get you at the first opportunity – they are simply not smart or crooked enough to hide their feelings
- Be wary of the cheers – while there would be genuine friends and well wishers, the backstabbers would always hide among the cheering crowd and would never be in the stone-faced crowd – they are smarter
- Throw a party and part with some cash on partying – you pay the taxes to the government, you also pay taxes to maintain bonhomie and good relations – getting promoted means it's now you who is in the direct line of fire, and you need to get your job done with these people,
- Avoid antagonizing any one from the beginning, you'll have plenty of time to talk out things later with those who seem especially hurt by your promotion
- Tell the team up front that you are grateful to all of them, because your promotion would be nowhere without the entire team performing well and making it possible
- Don't go overboard with explanations – act your part, you don't need to explain each of your actions and then wait for approval from your buddies
- Sit down in one-on-one meetings with especially difficult but vital members of the work group
- Don't let anyone assume the role of your advisor
Here are some things you should focus on immediately after getting your promotion taking your work group members into confidence, wherever required:
- look for and initiate methods and ways of fairly distributing the job load
- aggressively manage your time and reduce time-wasting activities
- Set targets that are sensible as well as testing
- Delegate work wherever possible without over burdening anyone
- Prioritize and begin the work
- Ask for ideas and opinions of experienced employees on issues
- Arrange meetings for new projects so that concerned employees are responsive about their roles and can create predictable environments