Your peers will be one of the biggest assets to you in your new role as manager. Other managers within your organization can provide information about the organization, operations and competitors. They can help you learn about and understand the culture. You can also help each other by contributing your time and talent to one another.

Initiate Partner Opportunities with Your Peers

Start getting to know your peers as early as the first week in your new role as manager. Use the information provided by your supervisor or human resources office to identify other managers and peers that you plan to connect with during your first few weeks with the organization. Organizational charts can help you understand who your peers are as well as give you an idea of how responsibility is distributed throughout the organization. Use the information you have gathered and review it with your goals to determine any mutual interests or potential areas of overlap. Then reach out to set up meetings so you can get to know others and learn about their goals. Work with them to determine any areas in which you can partner to accomplish work or be beneficial to one another professionally.

Begin Cultivation of Potential Future Peers

Your future with the organization may depend in large part on your ability to be forward-thinking about how you can add value over the long-term. Several organizations offer career paths but they are less common than most. You may have decided that you want to continue to progress upward through the ranks within the organization and apply for a promotion to a director or other position in the future. Your potential future peers may be willing to provide input to other senior leaders or express an interest in working with you or having you on their team. Consider possible positions of interest to you throughout the organization and identify individuals working in these areas who may want to work with you or recommend you in the future. Reach out at informal gatherings and get to know them, their interests and if any possible opportunities exist to work together. Be open-minded and even consider opportunities to volunteer viable ways to get to know one another.

Recognize Your Peers

Take time to thank you peers for their support of your efforts and for the opportunities to contribute to theirs. Use both private and public settings to express your gratitude and compliment the specifics of their work or the impact of their work on others or the organization. Be thoughtful and genuine in your remarks.

Key Takeaways:

• Be known for supporting and adding value to others.
• Focus on developing meaningful relationships.

Try This:

• Within your first 30 days, develop and implement plans to meet with your current peers while identifying potential future peers.

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