Submitted by Ryan Pedersen on
in
Forums
So almost two years ago I transferred from a job that i really enjoyed because of the manager I had at the time, that manager transferred as well to another department. The position he transferred to is now being eliminated, my department had an opening and he applied and was offered the job. When he starts I am scheduled to train him on his new position he is in the same titled position as I am. How should i approach this situation? I want to try to be as professional as possible. Thank you for your help.
Ryan~
what do you want to get out of it?
Hi Ryan,
How you should approach it depends somewhat on what you are hoping to get out of it. I pressume you want to build a fresh, professional relationship with him and be seen as professional by your current manager. If that's the case, behave as you would with a new employee that you didn't already know.
Until he starts working with you, you don't know how he is going to behave. Is he going to still act like he is your superior even if you are now more like equals? Is he going to still have all the same bad habits that you didn't like when he was your manager? Has he changed? Best advice is that you don't pre-judge and observe only his current behavious. Perhaps, if he does something that anoys you, you could introduce peer feedback early, before it gets out of hand and becomes a pattern.
If you're a MT fan, then perhaps you've also grown and can better understand and work with his particular DISC profile.
Hope some of that helps,
Kev