The Transition Nobody Names

Nobody tells you this before a promotion.

Every step up is an expert-to-beginner transition.

You go from the best at the old job to a novice at the new one.

I worked with a VP of Sales who had built her career on being the best closer in the room.

When she was promoted to lead the organization, she kept closing deals personally.

Not because her team couldn’t do it.

Because being the best closer was her identity.

She didn’t know who she was if she wasn’t the one doing it.

The discomfort she felt wasn’t incompetence.

It was the transition itself.

The gap between who she’d been and who the new role needed her to become.

New muscles are sore before they’re strong.

That’s not a warning sign. That’s what the transition feels like.

Where are you in the middle of a transition you haven’t named yet?