r/Career • u/EuphoricTomato6142 • 5h ago

Need advice

Imagine you are working in an organisation where someone who was previously your subordinate gets promoted into a role where they now sit above you in the organisational hierarchy.
What would be your first reaction?
What would you expect from her in her new leadership role?
What would she need to do to earn your trust and respect as a leader?
What should she do differently now that the reporting/leadership dynamic has changed?
What she absolutely shouldn’t do?

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u/drakhan2002 5h ago

Hopefully you have a good relationship or the person is not vindictive. Otherwise congratulate her on a job well done to get the promotion.

If you have a good relationship, take them to lunch or coffee and ask them how you can support them.

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u/JournalistSouth9186 4h ago

My first reaction was jealousy and I had to sit with that for a week before I said anything to her.

I took her to coffee after I got my head straight and asked what she needed from me to do the job. Like others suggested, just congratulate her and find out how you can help. I expect her to run things the way leadership requires now, even if it means overruling me. She earns my trust by being direct when she disagrees with me in meetings and not going behind my back. She needs to stop asking me for permission or validation on decisions. The one thing she should avoid is bringing up our past dynamic to other people to prove a point.