Jennifer from Brighton

I have been promoted and am now a manager of my old teammates and I am worried about how this will affect our relationship, what should I do?

Well firstly, well done you! Clearly your company can see your potential, and would not have promoted you if they did not think that you could handle it.

It is always a difficult when you are suddenly responsible for your former work mates, and your team will also be feeling a little nervous of what it means for them.

There are a couple of things you can do to help yourself:

Understand more about the style of management you are going to adopt - if you suddenly start being authoritarian in style, you may alienate the whole team, however, equally if you do not make it clear that there are now new boundaries, then they will not respect you. There are plenty of books on managing people, invest in one to get some hints and tips.

Find yourself a mentor - they will help you avoid the more common pitfalls you are inevitably going to face along the way. Remember, this person could be outside of the organisation, as managing people is not industry dependent!

Make some time with each of your team to have an informal (and confidential) chat about what this promotion means to you both, how you expect them to be and what would they like to see in terms of change. Discuss things like time keeping, sickness, what to do if they have a problem etc. If possible, make this a regular occurence, giving them opportunities to talk to you on a one:one basis will enhance your management style and give advance warning if there is any trouble brewing!

Ensure that you treat each team member the same. If you had close friends within the group, this may be one of the major challenges you will face, so best be up front about it during your one:one's.

Find out whether there is any training budget available, as managing people is easier once you have some guidance.

Good luck!