14/03/2025
We’ve got a great promotion and then anxiety sets in.
What’s going on?
Although a promotion is about career progression and moving forwards, it can sometimes feel like a step backwards.
Rather than embracing the new, we can feel worried and out of our depth.
This is because a promotion that takes us to the next level in our career can put us on a steep learning curve.
Most of us associate learning with making mistakes. We fear that our incompetence will trip us up when the eyes of the world are upon us.
To avoid these feelings of shame we pretend to know more than we do.
It’s the pretence that leads to feelings of Imposter Syndrome and (ironically) potential mistakes.
Here’s a simple task to build your confidence.
Sit down with pen and paper and make a list of all the questions you need answered in order to make you feel more confident in your new role. Keep the paper in your pocket because more questions will come to you over the next few days.
Score 1 – 10 for how confident you’ll feel once you have the information.
Work out which questions you could address yourself once you’ve got your foot in the door. There will be a few.
Decide which are the key questions that would make a big difference to your confidence.
Make a list of people you can approach for answers. You’ll find that you only need to approach one or two people, rather than the multitude you imagined!
People are happy to help, even when they’re busy. Some will be pleased you asked them as they see it as taking an interest. Others will be too busy with the pressures of the day to pass judgement on you.
Most people will give you more information than you asked for. Getting the answer to a few questions knocks a lot more off your list.
What advice and tips do you have?
Based locally in RG10, I work online. Please dm or call me if you’d like to have a chat about what I can do to help you make a success of your first 90 days.
