We Promote People Into Management and Pretend Nothing Happened

We treat a management promotion as a finish line: an announcement, a round of congratulations, a celebratory lunch. Then the real support stops at exactly the point it should begin. Becoming a manager is one of the biggest identity shifts of a career, and the strongest individual contributors often struggle most. Here's why, and what it looks like to carry people across the transition instead of just wishing them luck.