On the High Wire

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.

Robert W. Gunn is co-founder of Accompli, an advisory firm that helps executives achieve transformative goals while accelerating leader effectiveness. A pioneer in human resource outsourcing and a long-time executive guide, he created the administrative consulting practice at AT Kearney, and, in 1991, co-founded Gunn Partners, based on the principle of lean consulting. With Betsy Gullickson, he writes a monthly column for the executive-level magazine, Strategic Finance. Betsy Raskin Gullickson is an executive coach and communications consultant. Previously, she was a partner at Ketchum, Inc., one of the world's largest PR firms, where she directed the San Francisco business unit and the Global Food & Nutrition Practice. She has also served as a writer/editor at several trade magazines. With Robert Gunn, she writes a monthly column for the executive-level magazine, Strategic Finance.