Who now pulls the strings?

Apparently, there was once a custom in some police forces that, when someone was promoted to sergeant, they then had to move stations. The rationale was that the type of relationships you had built up with your ‘equal’ colleagues when you were a constable were not helpful when you took on the authorative role of sergeant. Whether this is an apocryphal story or not, there is considerable wisdom in its underlying message; the relationships we have and develop with colleagues are different from those we need when in a management role with those same colleagues.

Consider the following scenario: You are a dental nurse and have been working in your dental practice for three years alongside your colleague and friend, Sally. After interviews for a management post in the practice, Sally is appointed. How are you now going to feel with Sally being your manager? Can you still go on nights out together? Suppose you request a week’s annual leave and Sally does not grant it? How will you and Sally feel if she has to discipline you? Have both you and Sally lost, or at risk of losing, a friendship at the expense of promotion? These are the complexities of relationships that involve managers – for both those who manage us and the people for whom we are responsible.