Change the Narrative on Promotions: A New Approach to Career Growth

Cora spent her career working toward climbing the corporate ladder. She chased titles and worked on developing skills to help her attain those promotions, believing the narrative she was taught early on that true career success was measured by one thing: your title. 

Higher titles meant higher status, higher salaries, more respect, and greater value. That was her yardstick to determine if she was a “success.”

After her latest promotion, Cora looked around and evaluated her ‘success.’ She realized she was in a job doing things she hated, surrounded by people who barely knew her, who were all clamoring for the role she just achieved. She didn’t trust the people around her or those now reporting to her, believing they would stab her in the back at their first opportunity to make it look like she wasn’t fit for the promotion. 

Yet this was the measurement of success she was taught to strive for.

After everything she had accomplished, Cora goes home every day feeling rundown, burnt out, and dreading returning the next morning. Why does her success story feel so unfulfilling?

Does this sound familiar?

Does this sound like a successful career?

Would you want to be in Cora’s position? In a role that doesn’t fulfill you, doing things you can’t stand, just because of the title?

Promotions and titles are not the main ways to measure success… not anymore.

Consider other ways that make someone successful:

--The number of people they have helped.

--Their sphere of influence to lift others.

--The feeling of purpose when they wake up in the mornings.

--The feeling of contentment when they go home at the end of the day.

--Feeling fulfilled by the type of work you do on a daily basis.

This is where one particular great read on helping one find their path to genuine fulfillment can be career-changing. Julie Winkle Giulioni’s book, Promotions Are So Yesterday, helps illuminate how to redefine career development to help employees thrive. It’s a great resource to reframe how we think about climbing corporate ladders.

Ask yourself these questions to determine your own career path to ‘success’:

• What do you LOVE doing?

• What do you LIKE doing?

• What do you DISLIKE doing?

• What is your ideal end-state role? What does it look like?

• What makes you happiest and genuinely fulfilled?

These questions require self-reflection and honesty. We dive into this in considerably more detail, among other critical career coaching topics, in our Career Coaching LIVE Bootcamp.

How can you find your path to genuine career fulfillment?

Join us at the Career Coaching LIVE Bootcamp on Dec 8th.