On the High Wire: How to Survive Being Promoted

By Robert W. Gunn and Betsy Raskin Gullickson

Book Overview

You've just been promoted and find yourself questioning your ability to pull off the new job. Now what? Virtually every leader recalls that make or break promotion when success depends on accessing inner capacities that lie just beyond prior experience. Taking on new challenges and responsibilities as a manager can be one of the most exhilarating and rewarding transitions in a businessperson's career. It can also be fraught with stress, self-doubt, isolation, and frustration. Bob Gunn and Betsy Gullickson draw on decades of executive coaching and human resource consulting experience to characterize the process of management promotion as walking the high wire-venturing into the unknown without a safety net. In this highly accessible guide, Gunn and Gullickson address the challenges and opportunities head-on and offer specific strategies and tactics for navigating the transition into leadership, delegation, conflict management, motivation, project management, and problem solving. Featuring thought-provoking questions and a listing of helpful resources, On the High Wire will engage and inspire new managers to become even more creative and effective leaders.

At the heart of the book is the notion that productive and fulfilling management is not simply a collection of skills and techniques, but a mindset. Illustrating this theme through many powerful first-hand examples, the authors guide you toward achieving the clarity of vision and purpose that comes from being aware of context, attuned to the feelings that influence behavior, and respectful of multiple points of view. Featuring thought-provoking questions and a listing of helpful resources, On the High Wire will engage and inspire new managers to become even more creative and effective leaders.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0313351554
• ISBN13: 9780313351556
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

I Needed This!

How I wish I'd found this book years ago. I discovered it when it was very favorably reviewed in the Portland Press Herald. It has boxes showing the "Conventional" approach by a manager and then the "Step Up" approach. Too often as a manager, we revert to our gut instincts and they may not always be the best. This book tells how to move up to a higher level of functioning in management.

A "Must-Read" for Navigating the Transition into Leadership

So focused are we on scrambling up to the next rung of the corporate ladder, that we expend too little effort figuring out what we need to do when we get there. This nifty book examines the issues faced by real-life managers navigating the challenging landscape of a promotion and provides viable - and actionable - solutions. It guides the reader to discovery of the attitudes and behaviors required to be successful in a new, elevated role. This book offers excellent strategies for everyone, from senior managers to college graduates just starting a career. Engagingly written and a quick read, it will leave an indelible impression on how you conduct your business - and your life.

The human dimension of business success

There seem to be two things that business people don't understand: people in general, and themselves in particular. It's not that business people are dumb or insensitive -- the problem is that the modern corporation simply wasn't created to address the human dimension. The knowledge and systems aren't in place. Given the intensity of the environment these days, and the premium placed on great decisions, innovation, collaboration, talent, and intellectual capital, there's an urgent need for some simple, practical guidelines to the human aspect of business: how to help people reach their potential, how to get the most out of yourself. In my experience, most touchy-feely business books are worthless. This one gets to the core of what makes people grounded, flexible, and creative. Most of all it gets to the most important question: how is it that people get "in the zone" with access to all the good stuff they've got inside -- and how to stay there. This book is the real thing. And it's short!