career promotion and career progression

Career Progression Challenges: How To Confidently Manage A Career Promotion

A New Promotion and Career Progression

A new promotion can be an exciting new step in your career progression. Not only does it acknowledge all of your hard work, your dedication, your character and your skill set up to this point, but also it reflects your management’s trust and faith within your abilities, skills and positive value you bring to the table. All of this should boost your confidence. 

However, despite the positive news and happiness, you may also be feeling anxious, nervous and daunted about how to manage this career transition from where you are now or from where you were before. This is a very normal experience, and it does not reflect on your abilities or your value. It just simply means that you’re going through a few career changes and life changes. After all, even positive experiences can feel exciting as well as unsettling at times.  

Here are 8 career progression challenges you might be experiencing at the moment and some tips for how to confidently manage new promotion anxieties and challenges. 

1. Professional Dynamics and Relationship Changes

With your promotion comes the reality of leaving your old role behind. You may well be asked to manage, mentor or lead your previous colleagues or peers. You may also have been offered the promotion whilst others were not and with this comes the very real possibility for either tension, jealousy and envy or ideally an opportunity to get everyone on board and to inspire and work towards common goals. Relationship dynamics will change, and you may well be concerned about how you can successfully make a smooth transition.

Coaching Tip:

You will not please everyone so don’t try to. This can be exhausting as well as well as an energy and time waster for you. Ask yourself how you can inspire others, include your team and encourage them to feel empowered rather than focusing the spotlight on yourself.

2. You may doubt your abilities, right to success or right to lead.
Do you ever doubt your own abilities, right to success or your right to lead? Perhaps you feel as though you’ve stepped into the VIP room by mistake or that you’re worried about disappointing people or failing in your new role?

Coaching Tip:

Ask yourself how true are your fears? Does your fear really match your reality or are you catastrophising and allowing your fear to overwhelm you?

3. You compare yourself to your new peers or managers.
It’s normal to look at other peers or managers when you’re promoted. However, the issue occurs when you start comparing yourself to others who may have very different leadership styles, values or goals.

Coaching Tip

Never compare your chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 20. Everyone started where you are and be assured no one is perfect even now! Be proud, understand and establish your leadership values and create and confidently execute and experience your own story and legacy.

4. You feel compared, judged or scrutinised.

You may well have been plunged into the spotlight for all to see. With this comes many positive and negative opinions, projections and challenges.

Coaching Tip

Establishing your own boundaries, negotiables and non-negotiables is extremely important when evaluating what you feel is important and productive to take on board and what is not important and could be a reflection of other people’s issues, insecurities and baggage.

5. You feel the need to be perfect or to have all the answers.

Coaching Tip

Be assured no one has all the answers and perfection is definitely a moving target. Everyone experiences challenges but it’s how you respond to challenges which is the important thing. Visualise success as a wave not a straight line. Even the best leaders are open to change, development and embrace an open flexible mindset with focus rather than a closed mindset.

6. With your career progression, you feel a hefty amount of pressure and responsibility to perform well.

With your new role comes different expectations, pressures and responsibilities

Coaching Tip

Yes, it may feel everyone is looking to you! Give yourself time and space to understand that whilst results are important, feeling under immense pressure can also backfire to the point where you either procrastinate, feel overwhelmed or you end up in a cycle of perfectionismTake a deep breath, know you’re doing your best and that you’re human. Understand what your priorities are right now and start to break down your planning into smaller more manageable chunks. If it’s easier to delegate, the tasks which you feel can be done by someone else then delegate, empower and motivate your team members. This then frees up your time to focus on the priorities. Remember small steps lead to big destinations!

7. You don’t know where to start.

Coaching Tip

Step back for a moment. Take a Birdseye view. Review and break down your monthly and yearly goals into manageable chunks! Understand what needs prioritising at the moment, and what can wait. Also remember to schedule in your work/life balance strategy so that you feel refreshed, revitalised and able to clearly focus without feeling tired, lacking in energy or time.

8. You feel alone

Coaching Tips

Leadership loneliness and leadership anxiety is common and can make you feel as though you’re isolated but you’re not!

Find a professional mentor, a professional peer, a therapist, an executive and leadership coach or a life coach whom you can trust to confide in and work through any issues which may be present. Know that all leaders have been where you have stood! Trust yourself and your instincts, be open to change rather than being dismissive, defensive and closed off. Instead of focusing on your loneliness, re-focus your energy into the bigger goals, vision and team collaboration.Most importantly know that whilst you aim to inspire, to motivate and to lead others you will not always please everyone. It’s really important to not only thrive with the positive experiences of leadership, but to also feel comfortable and confident with tension, difficult situations, conflict and disagreements, and having to make and effectively communicate difficult decisions.

Next Steps

If you are experiencing career progression and career promotion anxiety, career development anxiety or leadership anxiety and loneliness why not book your complimentary coaching discovery call to find out how I can help you to find clarity, confidence and success? Click here to book