Page 291 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

276 Just Promoted!

2. They can be pleasant (an appealing, challenging work promotion or work
assignment) or unpleasant (little hope of meeting a tight time schedule).
3. They can be few in number, or they can build up and be many.
4. They can be low or high in intensity.
5. They can be short (a major project with a short time frame) or long
in duration (ongoing work or home responsibilities).
6. They can be old (have been with you for a long period) or new and
less familiar to you.
7. They are changeable. A stressor with certain characteristics can affect
us dramatically sometimes but not much or at all at other times.

What Leads to Distress?
Let’s look at circumstances that typically cause a person to move from effec-
tive use of optimal stress levels toward distress:
1. Transitions of all types are likely to be associated with distress. A job
change is a prime example. Increases in management responsibility;
changes in colleagues, direct reports, or boss; relocations; loss of respect;
and alterations in schedules are others.
2. Doing too much. Overtaxing or overloading yourself in either the num-
ber of events or intensity of tasks often leads to distress. This can occur
at work or home. Individuals who are moving up in management are
especially susceptible to overloading.
3. A person can be very busy but feel understimulated because the work or
life in general is boring.
4. Doing work of little perceived value, being involved in activities that are
unimportant to you or for which you do not understand the purpose,
can lead to distress. A percentage of professionals who become leaders
for the first time frequently are criticized by peers for leaving their pro-
fessional roots and joining management. In certain technical and scien-
tific professions, people often identify more with their profession than
with their employer. Distress often occurs when individuals feel they will
lose their expertise when they have taken on management and leader-
ship responsibility.
5. Role confusion or conflict can lead to distress. The person feels down
because of differences in perceived ability and actual responsibility or
authority level (either too high or too low). Distress also occurs when
there are unresolved conflicts in responsibility and authority with others.