After tons of hard work and multiple conversations with your manager, you’ve finally been given a promotion. Congratulations! This is a big milestone in your career, so take a moment to pat yourself on the back and celebrate this occasion—and all the effort you put in to get here.
Once you’ve celebrated this milestone, it’s time to plan out your new role and figure out how you’re going to make a positive impact, proving to your managers and to yourself that you deserved this new position. To do just that, below are several tips that will help you transition into your new role, ensuring your short-term and long-term success.
1.Take it slow
Newly promoted employees often act fast and try to fit in their roles as soon as they can. However, this isn’t the right approach to take when you’re promoted. Instead, take things slow, taking your time to understand what the new position requires from you and how the company operates. Yes, we all want to move fast, change old processes, and say yes to everything to prove ourselves worthy for the position, but making quick changes may not give a very positive impression of yourself to others. Your colleagues may start perceiving you as too confident or selfish.
So, resist the urge to put your mark on everything as soon as you get the new job title. Also resist the urge to try too hard to prove your worth and make quick decisions. Understand that you’re going to get new responsibilities with a new role—many of which you won’t have experience dealing with. Nobody expects you to change the dynamics of the company right away. Use your initial few days to learn how everything operates and gather as much information as possible about your role.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from peers and direct reports
Don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Ifsomeone had your position before you, befriend them andask them about the role. Also, surround yourself with people with similar job titles as yours and grasp as much knowledge and skill from them as you can. Don’t shy away from going to them for help if you’re ever stuck with something, or if you need help figuring out your role in the company and how you can help to implement successful changes. It can be very beneficial to schedule one-on-one meetings with your new peers to understand how you‘ll work together. The objective here is to make them feel that you’re a positive partner and care about their perspective. This will help you make more informed decisions in the long run and make your peers feel like they’re being heard.
Of course, when you’re promoted to a new job, there are also new sets of people who’ll report to you. And some people you worked with before may now be your juniors. To maintain a positive work environment, you need to understand the people who report to you and how they work. It’s also in your interest to ask your new direct reports for help. Scheduling one-on-one meetings with your new team will allow you to find out if there are any problems in your department that need to be fixing. Of course, meetings like this are also a way to form strong bonds, ensuring that work is efficient and as trouble-free as possible. And yes, you need to even meet with that one colleague who doesn’t take you seriously. No matter whom you're meeting with, a key thing to remember here is to speak less and listen more.
3.Embracegoing outside your comfort zone
To adjust to your new role, you’ll need to get out of your comfort zone for a while and make a few changes to how you work. Initially, there might be a lot of expectations from you, making you feel a little overburdened and stressed out. However, if you manage your day-to-day stress and understand that it’s only a matter of time until things ease up, you’ll start enjoying your work and will settle into your new, bigger role in no time.
Shedden Reign is a content writer at ResumeCroc who has written hundreds of articles to assist students’ career life. He is managing a growing team of writers who love to help students with their academics. As for his hobbies, he likes to read articles, newspapers, and magazines to keep himself updated.
