I had personally experienced a situation when, after a certain point of development in an organization, the movement stopped and further career growth was impossible. My opinion about it was that perhaps I was simply not competent enough professionally or personally.
While I was reading Seth Godin's Tribes, a thought came to my mind that, perhaps, that the reason for stalling was not my ineligibility for a higher position, but my reluctance to take on more responsibility. Going further, the reason for this fear of responsibility was my lack of belief in the organization's purpose and future vision, and more specifically, the purpose and future vision of its current leaders - the members of the team, part of which I would eventually become.
This lead me to a conclusion that when choosing an organization for successful career, it is not only important to be proficient in a specific job you are preparing to tackle, but also to believe and to trust the organization's overall vision. It is important to intuitively assess the level of trust and integrity among the team members. And last but not least, to acknowledge the fact that you could reach a point, when 'fear of responsibility' would overwhelm your current potential, and you would reach a point when it would be necessary to objectively define the reasons for this occurence and, based on that, make appropriate decisions for further action.
There is an external equivalent for this situation, when it occurs between the company and its customers. True, in most cases, customers are numerous and have little bargaining power, but this is a faulty reason to disregard their lack of belief in the company's future potential. Just as any customer is relatively easy to replace, so is the company, which is operating in a competitive market. Just as it is easy for one customer to leave the tribe of followers, so is it easy for a thousand customers.
While I was reading Seth Godin's Tribes, a thought came to my mind that, perhaps, that the reason for stalling was not my ineligibility for a higher position, but my reluctance to take on more responsibility. Going further, the reason for this fear of responsibility was my lack of belief in the organization's purpose and future vision, and more specifically, the purpose and future vision of its current leaders - the members of the team, part of which I would eventually become.
This lead me to a conclusion that when choosing an organization for successful career, it is not only important to be proficient in a specific job you are preparing to tackle, but also to believe and to trust the organization's overall vision. It is important to intuitively assess the level of trust and integrity among the team members. And last but not least, to acknowledge the fact that you could reach a point, when 'fear of responsibility' would overwhelm your current potential, and you would reach a point when it would be necessary to objectively define the reasons for this occurence and, based on that, make appropriate decisions for further action.
There is an external equivalent for this situation, when it occurs between the company and its customers. True, in most cases, customers are numerous and have little bargaining power, but this is a faulty reason to disregard their lack of belief in the company's future potential. Just as any customer is relatively easy to replace, so is the company, which is operating in a competitive market. Just as it is easy for one customer to leave the tribe of followers, so is it easy for a thousand customers.