Could This Be the Reason Your Career Has Stalled Out?
Maybe this has happened to you… or to someone you know.
You’ve enjoyed a successful career, an upward trajectory. You’ve been rewarded and recognized as a top performer. You’ve been given high marks on your reviews and received a series of promotions.
People describe you as intelligent and talented. They know you are capable. You get the job done.
But then, something happens.
It’s like hitting an invisible wall.
Mysteriously and without explanation, it seems that you are no longer appreciated and valued for your contributions. You’re receiving fewer accolades, and the promotions and opportunities are no longer a sure thing.
At first, you thought you were just imaging things, but now you know for certain that something is in the way.
Maybe you’ve even heard an explanation, but it just doesn’t make sense. After all, the things people seem to be criticizing now were never a problem before.
We could talk about why and how this happens… Why careers get stalled… but you’re probably past that, just wanting to take action and get things back on course.
We could talk about how unfair this is and how much you’ve contributed in the past. But you’ve already vented and lamented about that elsewhere.
So let’s cut to the chase. Let’s talk about what you can do to recover from three common stumbling blocks that prevent people from reaching their full potential and limit their career advancement.
These three common stumbling blocks, by the way, are often called “blind spots.” That’s because they are not easy to see on our own. So as you consider these stumbling blocks, don’t be too quick to dismiss them. You may want to ask a few people input. Maybe you’re just not seeing what’s causing you to stall out in your career.
Stumbling Block #1: a Lack of Focus
You may be getting pulled in multiple directions, trying to keep all the plates spinning, multi-tasking but always feeling a few steps behind.
As priorities shift and the only constant is change, you’ve been unable to maintain a clear and consistent focus.
This is costly in any career.
This may be derailing your career advancement if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms:
- You feel torn in many directions, unable to see things through from start to finish.
- Decisions are difficult to make.
- It is not clear, day to day, what your priorities are.
- You are putting out fires instead of planning, strategically, for the future.
- People don’t know what to expect from you.
- You are frustrated by the lack of progress you are making in the things that matter most to you.
- You aren’t making the difference you want to make.
To get back on track, you need clarity. It starts by getting true clarity on what matters most to you. When you have your own internal compass oriented to your own “true north,” prioritizing and focusing becomes much easier.
Most people have a general sense of their own values but haven’t taken the time to fully understand what they are and how they can light your path. This is an essential step in getting clarity, and it takes time and introspection to make these determinations.
Here’s a process, tool and example that can help you get started. Develop your own Personal Philosophy of Leadership to get the focus you need in order to get your career back on track.
Stumbling Block #2: a Lack of Soft Skills
More people resist acknowledgement of this career-derailing oversight than any other. After all, it’s your technical skills that brought you this far so it’s easy to scoff at the need for people skills now.
Many former superstars turned manager trip up here. The brilliant work they did earned them recognition and promotions, but at the manager/director level, the lack of people skills started to show. That’s because getting the work done through others requires engaging and developing them. Soft skills are needed to contribute at this level.
Before you minimize the importance of developing soft skills. Consider these reasons why you just may need them:
- Human Capital is the biggest investment in any organization.
- Employee Engagement impacts productivity, customer satisfaction, top line revenue & profitability.
- The #1 most common reason CEOs are terminated is their lack of insight into their own interpersonal behaviors.
- “Personality” derails more careers than any other factor.
- Organizations with a lack of bench strength more often have a gap because of missing soft skills vs. missing hard skills.
Hard skills brought you this far. Soft skills will get you longer-term success as you progress in your career.
The symptoms of this stumbling block are impossible to avoid or ignore. At the same time, it’s tempting to try and rationalize these symptoms and deflect responsibility for them. But you need to take stock and accountability if:
- You got low marks as a Manager on the Employee Engagement survey.
- Employee morale is low on your team.
- There is high turnover on your team.
- You struggle with communication issues.
- Your emotions override your reason and cause you to behave in ways you later regret.
- You don’t have strong bonds with others in the workplace.
- You use authority rather than influence and inspiration to get things done.
If you lack soft skills, stop making excuses. So what if they don’t come naturally? Work to develop them just as you would work to develop any other skill that’s required for your job. Invest in yourself and be vulnerable enough to get the coaching and feedback that will help you succeed.
Here’s a handy starting point. It’s a daily Employee Engagement Checklist you can use to identify and improve on simple behaviors that will be do a better job of engaging employees.
Stumbling Block #3: a Lack of Trust
In a Korn Ferry global research study, lack of ethics and betrayal of trust showed up among the most damaging career stallers.
The problem is that you may not even realize that you have breached someone’s trust. There’s more to it than honesty and integrity.
What’s more, as you ascend the career ladder, it becomes increasingly important to extend trust to others. That is often the greater challenge. But if you are to delegate and allow people to take risks and to avoid micro-managing, you simply must trust. Every hand-off requires trust. Fostering trust is how you create an enabling environment.
You may be experiencing a career stall-out because you aren’t sufficiently trusting others. These symptoms may be warning signs:
- You frequently second guess what people say.
- You withhold information.
- You feel others do not have your best interests in mind when they make decisions.
- You do not see others as fully reliable or credible.
- You feel a need to double-check others’ work.
- You don’t really know people outside your own job function.
- You feel colleagues are competing with you.
To make a shift and begin extending more trust to others, start by understanding The 12 Dimensions of Trust. It will help you understand and work through vague feelings of mistrust that you have with others.
In addition to this understanding, learn to let go and abandon the pursuit of perfection. Others may not do the work quite as well as you do it. Unless there are high stakes involved, you should delegate the work even when you know the output will not be on par with your own. It’s okay. They will learn and improve, just as you once had the opportunity to do.
Learn about effective delegation to set others up for success and continual development. Give people the benefit of the doubt so they have time to try, fail, learn and grow. Offer incremental or stair-stepped trust rather than viewing it as all-or-none.
You’re Not Alone!
These are common career barriers. You’re not the only one to experience these blind spots. You can recover from them if you choose to gain awareness and adopt different behaviors.
Consider hiring an executive coach to work through a career barrier. If you’re not sure coaching is the right solution for you, take this simple self-assessment that will help you make that determination.
Trying to mask these issues won’t make them go away. Doing so will only make you appear unaware, out of touch and defensive. That’s the worst career blockade of all.
