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Five Reasons Management Careers Plateau

Critical Transitions on the Corporate Ladder

For twenty years I've been observing an intriguing phenomenon: promising, high-potential managers whose careers seem to top out prematurely.

There's no apparent scandal to blame as the culprit. No wholesale failure of a pivotal assignment. No costly mistake as a result of their misjudgments. They simply quit moving up. Or worse still, they are asked to move out.

As a leadership and executive coach, I've often been engaged to work with managers who are in this very situation, or soon may be. Sometimes it's the manager who reaches out to me to explore possible causes for a plateaued career.

More often it's a company that contacts me, asking for my help in rescuing the flagging career of a high-promise worker.

After dozens of engagements like this, I came to see that many of these clients already had the personality and the requisite skills to continue their upward climb. But they had plateaued because of factors having little to do with their likability or skill set.

In this episode I look at five of the more common factors which I've encountered that are quietly sabotaging careers. I think of them as "silent killers," because they rarely call attention to themselves. Yet they are choking off what could be a stellar career.

As I examine these career-killing villains, ask whether you're taking adequate precautions against them.