Building Strong Peer Relationships: Why It Matters and the Issues You Might Face

Managing difficult peers is a common challenge for new managers. Building relationships with difficult peers is crucial for succeeding in the role. As a manager, your success depends on how well you collaborate with other team managers. Without their support, your team’s deliverables may suffer.

In a managerial context, peers refer to individuals who hold similar positions or levels of responsibility within an organization but are not in a direct reporting relationship with you as manager.

Hence, having a strategic partnership with peer managers becomes important. However, the issue arises when they are not collaborative. The non-collaborative situation arises due to various reasons. It could be because boundaries are not clear, the plan is not clear, there are other challenges of which you are not aware or their team’s goal is not clear, and many more.

So it is important to strategize the collaboration rather than expecting everyone will collaborate no matter the situation. Based on my experience, I have 5 potential issues you might face if collaboration with peer managers is not established.

1. Missed Deliverables - Your team’s deliverables will have delays due to a lack of collaboration from peer teams. And who wouldn't love explaining to upper management why timelines are slipping? It's like playing a game of "Whack-A-Mole" but with deadlines instead of moles.
2. Increased Stress - Lack of trust and collaboration impacts the deliverables and creates a stressful work environment. Picture this: it's like trying to run a relay race where your teammates keep dropping the baton. Stressful, right? Continuing in such an environment is not good for you and your team members.
3. Low Team Morale - Due to delays and non-cooperative peers, your team will be affected as the deliverables are not going on time. This will result in low morale. Think of your team as a well-oiled machine; if one cog doesn't work, the entire machine grinds to a halt.
4. Misalignment - Due to poor communication and collaboration, there will be always misalignment between the teams. This in turn results in missed deliverables and low morale. It's like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with pieces from different sets—nothing fits.
5. Reduced Productivity - Due to the above four issues, there will be always waiting for something to progress. This results in reduced productivity of your team. It’s akin to having a car with a flat tire; you know you need to move, but you can’t go anywhere fast.

As you start this journey, remember that becoming an effective manager takes continuous learning and growth. Every experience and challenge will shape you into a better leader.

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