You’ve spent years working towards your career goals: sacrificing social events, missing precious time with your children, and working during family vacations. But, after years of hard work you are finally promoted to your dream job—Vice President of your company. You shattered the glass ceiling because you are the first woman in the history of the company to hold this position. There are marketing announcements and congratulatory emails. But, you notice that some of your friends and colleagues fail to utter a word. You assume it is because they are busy and remind yourself that everything isn’t about you; but, what you may be experiencing is the aftermath of shattering the glass ceiling.

When you shatter the glass ceiling, shards of glass will undoubtedly fall—painfully stabbing you on the way down. Those shards of glass are people who are envious of your success; coworkers who feel like they should have gotten the promotion over you; and, people who assume you got your promotion because of luck. The shards of glass are also the growing pains of accepting a promotion because you have to learn a new role, manage a new team, and accept a more demanding schedule. Either way, when you do something so bold as to shatter the glass ceiling you have to be prepared for the unavoidable sharp shards that will follow.