Rebecca Schalm, practice leader of executive selection and integration at RHR International, says that integrating an employee into a new position -- whether they've come from inside or outside -- requires several important factors be in place:

* A clear understanding of the role and expectations for the position, including how the position intersects with other roles and where the power boundaries lie.

* Rethinking and recontracting existing relationships. "When you've been promoted, you still need to earn credibility," says Schalm. "You still need to convince people that you were the right choice for the role."

* Early awareness of key development paths. "If you've been promoted into a role, there are probably some things that you don't know how to do and haven't done before -- you need to get on those things right away," says Schalm.

She says that it is not uncommon for people to be several months into a new role before recognizing that there were certain critical success factors that they should have paid attention to earlier.

* Assistance in identifying and forming important relationships, especially for candidates hired from the outside, she says.

* Identifying early wins. "Particularly with people from outside, you need to give them some guidance," says Schalm. "You can't assume they're going to hone in on something that everyone around them sees as very critical."