Page 312 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Creating Your New Life Integration 297

1. Personal wellness, family health, and work effectiveness are strongly
interdependent. Understanding personal/family and work systems
will help you better manage the process of moving up.
2. Major role changes often trigger major life changes. The impact of
these changes can be addressed through careful individual and family
reflection, communication, and clarification of personal/family prior-
ities and values.
3. Leaders who are moving up are in a state of transition. The process of
transition can be understood and effectively managed by individuals
and by families. Transitions usually begin with an ending, then move
to a period of confusion and sometimes distress called the neutral
zone. The transition period ends with a new beginning. Completing
Your Personal Stress Inventory and applying accepted stress manage-
ment strategies and techniques can add a lot of strength and
resiliency as you work through the first 12 months of your new role.
4. Health and well-being in one’s personal, family, and work life affect
and are affected by stress and distress. Understanding concepts such
as stress, distress, your personal comfort zone, and what leads to dis-
tress can help you effectively manage the work, personal, and family
aspects of being promoted.
5. Mutual understanding, support, fairness, and responsible collabora-
tion within dual-career families or with partners are essential for
leaders on the rise. Relationships and families can either be weakened
or strengthened, depending on how well you work together to solve
problems that may arise during the first year of your new job.
6. The goal is to achieve a new life integration.
■ People feel best about themselves when what they value most in life is
consistent with the way they actually live. Using time as you wish is one
of the biggest challenges in successfully managing the personal side of
moving up.
■ Some key personal values have great importance to you but mean less to
others. During periods of intense work, such as that experienced during
the first year of increased leadership responsibility, important areas of
your life outside of work might be compromised.
■ What is seemingly a short-term strain because of the transition into your
new responsibilities can easily and inadvertently become a long-term