Welcome to Ask the CEO, in which chief executives take time out from running companies to solve your career problems.  Marla Malcolm Beck, 44 years old, is the founder and chief executive of Bluemercury Inc., a chain of beauty stores with 59 U.S. locations and 600 employees. In a recent interview, she talked about managing for the first time. Edited excerpts:  Q: I got promoted – but now I’m managing my former colleagues and friends. How do I make that transition?  A: You have the discussion. We get so email driven, we forget to talk to each other.  [Say], ‘Hey, we’re friends. That friendship is still there, but now I have certain obligations: to ask you to help me meet project deadlines and help me do things that you may not be comfortable with my asking you. I have a role now where I’m responsible for this area and this project and for your development. It may be a little uncomfortable but why don’t we just figure it out together?’ I always believe in being up front and not beating around the bush.  We see it all the time in retail because you have someone who was promoted from sales associate to store manager and now you’re the boss. You can’t be best friends all day during work because you have to have some responsibility for directing traffic, but you don’t want to lose that friendship because you can alienate that person. It’s a hard balance. [But] it’s easier than it used to be because hierarchies are really broken down. I see work as more project-based now. It’s an easier discussion – ‘I’m the project leader today. Maybe one day you’ll be the project leader.’  If you don’t have the discussion, it can be a disaster. The person who wasn’t promoted starts bonding with someone else and talks about the person who was promoted. So if you break down that barrier up front, then you don’t have that potential for different team dynamics.
What to do when making the transition from working with a friend to managing one? A retail CEO weighs in.