Settle the terms first
A promotion is a new job offer from your current employer, and you should treat it like one. Employers often pay an internal promotion less than they would pay an outsider hired into the same title, so look up the market range for the new role before the conversation. Ask for the title, salary, effective date, reporting line and scope in a written offer or an email. If the title arrives without money, which is sometimes called a dry promotion, ask for a dated compensation review in writing, and three to six months is a reasonable interval. Check your overtime status too. A move from hourly pay to an exempt salary can end overtime, and a raise that replaces ten hours of weekly overtime may be a pay cut.
The first ninety days
- You ask your manager what success in this role looks like in six months and how it will be measured, and you write the answer down.
- You agree on three priorities and confirm them by email.
- You hand off your old duties with a written guide, and you press for a replacement if one is needed.
- You meet every person whose work now depends on yours, and you mostly listen.
- You deliver one visible result early, since it buys patience for the slower projects.
Managing former peers
If you now supervise people you used to eat lunch with, say so plainly in the first week. Hold a one-on-one with each person, ask what they need from you, and admit that the relationship has changed. You can no longer join the complaining about management, because you are management, and you cannot have visible favorites. Someone on the team may have wanted the job. Speak to that person early and directly, and give them real work that matters.
The classic errors
- New managers keep doing the old job because they are good at it, and the new job goes undone.
- New managers change everything in the first month to prove the choice was right.
- New managers avoid the first hard conversation, which makes the second one worse.
- People raise their spending to match the raise before the first larger paycheck has cleared.
The money
Send half of the raise to savings or retirement in the same week it takes effect, before you grow used to the larger deposit.
Note Update your resume the week the promotion takes effect, with dates and scope, while you still remember what you did to earn it.
