New director moving from teacher to boss... Looking for advice from others.

I have been coaching a program where one of the fellow teachers became the director. This happened to me, and it was so challenging. After the previous director literally quit in one day (yes, she walked out the door), the CEO of the nonprofit organization appointed me the director of the child care program. The hardest part of the promotion wasn't learning the paperwork; it was moving from being a coworker to being a supervisor of people who were my friends. Overnight, the people who used to sit with me and vent about the decisions made by the previous director stopped speaking to me.

Over the years, I learned that being a director meant you really couldn't have the same type of relationship with the teaching staff, but at the time, it was really challenging. I was young and growing as a director. I learned quickly that teamwork makes the dream work, so I started pulling in the teaching staff and we would make decisions together. This worked well.

Now back to my coaching. I shared my story with this new director, but I wondered if anyone else had a similar story that they could share, how they handled the transitions, and if they had any tips that I could pass along to this new director.

What advice would you give her?