7 Elusive Reasons Career Growth Stalls When You Are Sincere At Work
How to use these 7 common misconceptions to get an unfair advantage at work.
Long ago, when we were young & naïve, we millennial women had star spangled dreams of career growth. We believed all we had to do was show up & work hard as dreams do come true in the land of fairy tales where we grew up. Our wish granting boss genies would see to our promotions & pay packets.
But no one told us truths about career growth. So, we goofed up trying our best not to goof up. When our fairy tales didn’t come true, we labelled the world of work unfair.
‘Work sucks’ became a Friday evening sob song we played out in pubs world over.
I was singing my sob song to a former boss who was also a friend. In return he told gave me 7 ways we sincere middle-aged women stall our own career growth.
Time to list them down.
We respect hierarchy.
We run everything through our bosses even if our bosses are powerless in the system. We don’t take the backdoor by approaching powerful seniors not in our reporting hierarchy.
Yes, hierarchy gets regular work done & helps business owners hand out routine responsibilities. But overworked business owners want those who can break ranks & handle the big tasks. They are looking for:
- Employees who are self-aware enough to know their strengths & shortcomings.
- Those who move the wheels to get shit done no matter their designation.
- Those who earn respect by living values like ethics, integrity & kindness.
I know. Your temptation to respect hierarchy is ingrained & strong. But now you know you can kick hierarchy in its royal outdated butt. Play to your strengths & play at the edges. You grow faster.
We women believe power is a thing we have to acquire.
But stiff-collared cats in the hierarchy you think are powerful might be mere pen pushers. When you give them undue power their hidden insecurity shows up to stall your progress.
Now turn this bitter truth around on its head. How can you wield power to influence your own career growth? You can get power when you identify power center gaps. You then let your spunk talk when you occupy the power centers by doing work that makes you shine. This is the way to becoming top dog & earning top dollar.
Misconceptions about permission affect our career growth.
We women live in a world of permission at work. I once had a woman colleague who would ask for permission to take a leak. No kidding. A grown 26-year-old needed permission to empty her bladder! She probably got a UTI, but I hope not for her sake. We need permission to step over personal boundaries but don’t need permission to step over self-serving corporate boundaries.
These epic facts will make you look at career growth differently:
- Insecure people demand you ask their permission. They are almost always powerless to hurt you.
- Crossing the boundaries of permission will earn you respect. And plum projects.
- Nobody who became anybody did it without bugging somebody.
- When you are scared to ruffle feathers, you are easy to get rid of.
So, volunteer to do interesting work & show off the results. Share an idea in a meeting. Get introduced to interesting folk.
Permission means you allow someone else to control your career growth.
Our misconception about salaries stalls our career growth.
My parents grew up in the 70s in India. They learnt that the corporate is a benevolent kingdom & the employer is its God. They taught to their posterity what they learnt. Posterity happened to be a millennial woman.
But posterity now knows better.
A corporate is a profit-making monster. Its human resources have a mandate to hire at the lowest cost. When companies want to reduce costs, salaries are the first to take a hit. So, make hay while the sun shines. Ask for your worth because there is no benevolent corporate Santa paying you fair wages. Learn to negotiate.
We believe office politics stall career growth.
The biggest myth we believe is that our careers stall when we face politics at work. Were you told that your job is an asset you need to hold onto? That’s a misnomer because in fear of losing your job, you aren’t taking enough risks at work. You are not pushing the envelope.
Office politics only means one thing. You have arrived at your workplace.
You are doing some things right. Don’t let illusions about office politics keep you from playing big.
We believe we have to build our brand.
It may hurt to hear this. We women waste time figuring ways to build a personal brand because we heard some gurus say that’s how to land plum projects. Corporate workforce is a human assembly line, similar & replaceable. You are part of the assembly line so you cannot have a personal brand. The only personal brand you can build is outside of work if you want to side hustle.
We want to appease the networking Gods.
You hear networking will get you opportunities. So, you attend events, hand out your cards, drink with strangers & move on to forget their names. If it sounds alarmingly like speed dating, it’s because the results are similar. Naught. Networking does not help your career growth. What will help is this. When you choose your circle with care & keep it small but close you make friends. You thrive for & along with your circle of friends.
Career growth is easy once you understand how the 9–5 works. Much like the real world. You can rewrite your corporate story when you know how powerful you actually are.
I am a freelance writer who likes to write about career advice. If you are a career coach who wishes to start a blog, consider hiring me to write for you. Talk here to hire me.
