[Vibgyor5]

Question to folks who respond and experienced managers: how do you deal with peer managers who're not as supportive and out to get you?

Context: I joined a startup and I'm leading a new function for this org. While I have decent relationship with all others, one of my peers is far less supportive, demonstrates his value/("we made this call before you joined") at every opportunity, and even wanted to push through some of the tasks/projects on me/my team where we need not be owner but partners.

Management is supportive of me as well but said peer has a stronger rapport and I don't want to be finicky about this to the management.

How do you rightfully pushback in this scenario then?

[matt_s]

> leading a new function for this org

Odds are that other manager thought they would get that function or was somewhere in the process of getting that function and now you have it.

One approach might be to sit down in a one on one and talk about how everyone wants new thing you manage to succeed and ask details about how they would approach new function, what they might be looking for and some background history about decisions, etc. I think establishing common ground of "we all want this to be awesome" and "I'm here because there is so much work to do in this space its a separate team" should be pretty straightforward at a startup/small company.

[bradhe]

Honestly I think this is a pretty common problem. Management can be a very competitive branch of the tech organization. There’s only so many positions and everyone (mostly) is motivated and wants to be next in line.

If you’re comfortable and don’t want to make a move, don’t worry about it. But since you’re asking, I’m assuming you have some ambition. You’ve got the play the game. Show your value to the organization. Act like the individual the role asks for. Advocate for yourself and your team. It’s hard at first, but gets easier.