WHEN YOU ARE PROMOTED

When you are promoted out of your cubicle, you may move into an office, perhaps down the hall or even to another floor. All of your colleagues are happy for you, but they are also wondering if you are going to change. Are you still the same person you were back in the days in the cube, or will this new title and an office (there's nothing like a door and a window to make you feel special after cube life) change you into someone else? In other words, will you become one of “those guys”—the bosses who make the decisions, often without much understanding of the real facts?

Your former cube mates will come to their own conclusions pretty quickly. Next time someone is celebrating a birthday or five-year anniversary with the company, your colleagues back in the cubes will send you an invitation for two reasons. One, yes, they want you to be there; but, two, they are also dying to find out if you'll show up. Will you come back to building 5, fourth floor, third cubicle from the corner to sit on the floor and eat pizza? Or is that something you will no longer do, now that you have your new job title?

These invitations are the perfect opportunity to gauge your genuine humility and your true self-confidence. You may have started to wonder what your new colleagues in the offices will think if you are still socializing with your old crowd. But what could possibly be wrong with maintaining these relationships with your cube mates? They have been your friends and have helped you accomplish what you did, which resulted in your promotion. Plus, you know these folks have a really good understanding of what's going on in the company. So why wouldn't you want to continue to socialize with them instead of treating them as if you are now too good for them? Keeping up these relationships is not only the right thing to do but also puts you in a stronger competitive position when it comes to gathering information and feedback from the front line.

As you rise through the leadership ranks, continuing your friendships with your old team need not result in any conflict when you are in a supervisory position. As long as you establish appropriate boundaries and expectations, these relationships won't set you up for showing favoritism or appearing to do so. You can be friends with the people you evaluate—setting their salaries and deciding on their promotions—and still be objective. I always made it known from the beginning that we could all be friends; however, there were specific requirements and performance objectives that people had to achieve. It was my job as the boss to hold people accountable. We could be friendly and informal, and we could relate to and challenge one another; however, accountability would never be compromised. Anyone who did not meet her objectives would face the consequences, including being fired. No one was off the hook, and I did end up having to fire people who, to this day, I consider to be my friends.

It is understandable that if you stop associating with the people in the cubicles, it will make it easier for you to feel that you are being objective. However, I believe that you will sacrifice the enormous benefit of being able to relate to others, including relying on their perspective, as we'll discuss later in this chapter.