Autumn Career Transitions: Promotions & Succession Ready
Autumn teaches us how to prepare for change before it arrives, and that same readiness, not avoidance, is what turns a career transition into growth instead of crisis. I love watching the leaves change in upstate New York this time of year. The hills look like they’re dancing, every hillside dressed in a different color, and somehow it all still works together as one landscape. I think careers can look a lot like that.
The Swivel
I’ve lived that lesson more times than I can count. During my time at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, one of my professors described navigating change as a swivel. You keep one foot planted while you pivot. You don’t change the core of who you are. You adjust how you show up inside the landscape around you.
Carrying Forward What Serves You
That image explains almost every transition in my career. While I was in corporate, I moved from behavioral health clinician to consultant to leader to senior manager, each stage stretching me in ways the one before it hadn’t. As an entrepreneur, the swivel carried me from private practice owner to speaker, researcher, and advisor. And in entertainment, it carried me from cheerleader and dancer to opportunities I couldn’t have predicted years ago, including work in film and on camera, and now to sitting on the other side of the table as a judge.
None of those moves erased what came before them. Growth doesn’t require us to abandon who we are. We carry forward the experience, the relationships, and the parts of ourselves that still serve us, and we make room for what’s next.
Joy Doesn’t Require Certainty
That’s part of resilience. I believe it’s part of joy, too. Joy doesn’t require certainty. It coexists with it just fine. When we become aware of what’s changing and prepare for it with intention, we get to respond to a transition instead of letting fear or stress make the decision for us.
Designing the Landscape You’re About to Walk Into
That’s the real work of the Set stage in Ready, Set, Go®: designing the landscape you’re about to walk into, using the emotional intelligence to stay aware of your own reactions and the people around you as you navigate whatever a promotion, a succession, or a career change puts in front of you.
When You’re Ready to Move
If you’re feeling the stress of a transition right now, whether you’re hoping for a promotion, sitting in a succession conversation, or quietly wondering if it’s time to leave, the way through isn’t to wait until the discomfort forces your hand. Ask the questions you’ve been avoiding. Get the one-on-one on the calendar. Accept feedback graciously, even the version of it that stings. And if you’re the one considering a step out of corporate life altogether, start by finding a mentor who’s already made that walk. You don’t have to design that landscape alone.
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Adam Grant’s work on staying willing to rethink who we are, even mid-career, points to the same idea. DJ Irie told me something similar when I sat down with him: the throughline in his career has always been aligning what he genuinely cares about with where he puts his professional energy. Josh Landay said nearly the same thing from a different angle, that the most interesting careers usually belong to the people willing to pursue more than one passion instead of staying in a single lane forever.
Never underestimate the power of positive intentions. Approaching each transition, each hard conversation, with a genuine desire to create value tends to open doors you didn’t know were there. And sometimes resilience isn’t about holding steady. It’s about having the bravery to take the risk when you already know the status quo isn’t working for you anymore. You’re the safest bet there is—take a risk on yourself.
What are you preparing for this season?
