September 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 40

MANAGING MANAGEMENT

have offered reasonable feedback and
questions and that you'll have to ask a
few more yourself to help everyone understand the new direction. If you do,
in fact, have issue with something going
on, the group to seek feedback from
(or commiserate with) is your new peer
group: the other managers.
Confidential Information
There are pitfalls to privilege. You
will be privy to management-level information that is not appropriate to
share or discuss, and all of you know
this. Ask your team upfront not to pry
or pressure you into discussing things
with them that all sides know are not
appropriate (co-workers' wages, why
someone was let go, who's getting
the promotion, if layoffs are coming,
etc.). You'll probably have to remind
them (and catch yourself) from time
to time, but it's going to come up.
A less obvious breach may start with
the conversations you've had for years
that, as peers, were based on common
observations combined with personal
opinion but now are no longer appropriate. Example: You and Judy would
frequently share your frustration with
Fred's constant early exits, late arrivals
and unplanned days off, and lament the
impact it has on the rest of the team.
You'd ask each other why " management " was so oblivious or elected to
ignore it. Now that both Judy and Fred
are reporting to you, you may have
more context as to why Fred seems to
come and go and miss more work than
the average employee. Let's say Fred
has an ADA accommodation or is
taking protected intermittent leave under FMLA. You cannot disclose those
things to Judy. So when Judy complains
to you that Fred's missed another deadline and it's putting her behind, you can't
make excuses for Fred and you can't tell
Judy why it continues to be accepted

Parks & Recreation

from him and not others. Welcome to
management! Thank Judy for letting
you know and assure her that you'll extend her deadline because of Fred's delay. You'll have a separate conversation
with Fred about his own deadlines, but
you can't discuss one employee's performance with another employee, no matter how obvious and observable.

You've got to strike a
balance and distance
yourself a bit to gain
objectivity.
Watch Out for Favoritism
or Overcompensation
You may already be watching that
you don't give the best assignments or
the highest scores to those one or two
people on your team who were your
friends before you were promoted.
Believe me, you aren't watching nearly as closely as the other people on
your team. On the other hand, you
want to make sure you don't lean too
far in the other direction either, and
overcompensate for that longstanding friendship by being tougher on
them than everyone else. You've got
to strike a balance and distance yourself a bit to gain objectivity. When
possible, rely on existing policies and
processes to level the playing field
For example, when two people ask
for the same week of vacation, who
does the policy say gets preference?
Seniority? First come, first serve?
Give and Take
Remember the reason you were promoted in the first place and give your
team the proper supervision and leadership they need and expect. If this

| S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

is your first time supervising, don't
expect yourself to intuitively " just
know " what to do in every situation.
Get some training, read some books
and rely on your new peer group -
the other managers. But also remember to get the supervision you need
from your own boss. You can't be expected to be perfect and self-sufficient
on day one, and your boss is a good
resource to coach you through situations and ensure they are handled the
way he or she would have preferred.
Supervisors and managers can make
or break a company. Employees will
walk away from extraordinary pay, or
doing a job they love, because of a bad
boss. Employees will also stick with a
so-so job making so-so pay for a great
boss. What makes a great boss? Being
their " friend " did not make the list.
Employees want their boss to set clear
expectations and goals, recognize accomplishments, have open communication, provide growth opportunities,
be someone they can trust and respect,
and have enough trust in them to empower them to do their job. Maintaining their friendships won't accomplish
any of those things. Of course, it would
be hard to be successful at any of those
things if you aren't at least friendly, but
that's different from being their friend.
If you want to step up and take on
the responsibility of management, but
that move will require supervising your
friends and peers, you'll need to accept
that your workplace friends don't have
to become enemies but the relationship
will take on completely different characteristics. If you handle the transition
well and commit to doing what it takes
to be a good boss, those old friends will
appreciate you even more, just for different reasons.
Lauren Yost is NRPA's Vice President of
Operations (lyost@nrpa.org).

September 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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