Rites of Passage: Training Managers to Grow Up

 I like to give participants a chance to help set the training agenda, and not just at the beginning of a workshop but if possible in advance - in the form of a survey, say. It helps soften up the terrain, as it were, establish a relationship with the facilitator in advance of the face-to-face or online meeting, and predispose them to anticipate the training positively - the message is that this won't be the numbingly boring, condescending, irrelevant, canned ritual calvary they usually associate with professional development.

Whew! Too true, alas.

So I was surprised, canvassing the participants in the communication module I was delivering, to find that the question uppermost in their minds was how to preserve collegial relationships with their former peers, now that they'd been promoted to the supervisory ranks. And it wasn't just this group - the question  comes up over and over again.

Over time I've handled this issue different ways, but lately I've had to come against a hard fact: you just can't pretend you're still on the same interpersonal footing with your new direct reports as you were when you were peer-colleagues, and you're kidding yourself and inviting trouble if you think you can.