Are You Suffering from Promotion Grief?

"After years of sharpening your skills, attending to company priorities, and achieving stellar results, you've received the promotion to manager that had long been in your sights. Now you can lead that tight band of your former peers, and together you all can be rock stars. That's the plan, anyway, but it rarely works out quite that perfectly; sometimes, it doesn't work out at all. And when that happens, often what we don't see is that our identities subtly sabotage us."

"If you are confident and successful in your work role, then it's likely to become an important part of how you see yourself. You may introduce yourself with your job title, your role, or what you do. Perhaps it's what you write under your name on that "Hello, my name is _____" nametag. In short, it becomes one of the primary ways you define who you are."

A promotion commonly demands an identity shift beyond acquiring new skills. Identity and work role alignment reinforces confidence, purpose, and attention. Roles that become central to self-definition shape behavior and emotional rewards. When role and identity misalign, identity blindspots emerge and can undermine performance and relationships. Success in a promoted role requires deliberate identity adjustment as well as skill development. Organizations and employees frequently underestimate the psychological transition involved in moving up. A deliberate adjustment period helps individuals adapt, surface misfits, and determine whether the new role fits long-term aspirations and strengths.

Read at Psychology Today