172: When Your Ambition Gets Questioned
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Have you ever been questioned about your level of ambition? It can cause a myriad of feelings to run through your mind. You might feel angry, defensive, devalued, disappointed, mistreated, and underestimated. It can be painful to hear someone in a place of leadership question your ambition and suggest that you might not be providing value at your place of work.
Recently I went through this situation at work. I was pulled into one of the many quiet offices we have, and the manager bluntly stated to me, “You’ve been in this position for 6 years and haven’t been advanced. You must be doing something wrong that management wouldn’t see fit to advance your career here.” My mind immediately jumped through all the hoops mentioned above. I even considered walking out and quitting right then and there.
Why do we feel this way though? If you really like the job you have, should you be trying to advance into other roles? There is a fine line between liking your job and settling for something safe. If you truly love your job and that is all you ever wanted to do in life, do it. Keep developing in that job though. Don’t get to the point where you are doing the bare minimum to get by. If you find yourself doing the bare minimum and it gets to be a tough internal argument to go into work, you are most likely just settling.
In most professional settings a business looks for ambitious people. Someone who exhibits the right amount of ambition is someone who isn’t complacent in their role. They have a plan for where they want to go from where they are now. They see that you have a goal, plan things out, and have trackable milestones to create some accountability. These are all good signs that a person has a healthy work ethic to a company. They call this ambition. If they don’t see that in their employees, they can’t count on the employee always performing their best.
I had to take a deeper look at my role at the company I work for and analyze whether I was giving my best. I know that I am, but I haven’t shown leadership through my communications. It has never been part of who I am to call attention to the things I am doing at work. I show pride in what I do when it succeeds and work hard to right any failures. The one thing I lacked was the desire to move out of the safety of where I was and branch out to get noticed. If you are noticed, your flaws can be seen by people who can decide if you keep your job or not. It is an uncertain way to live because you know what you can expect from the safety of your comfort zone. However, there is very little room for growth as a person in this way of thinking.
The point is that we don’t want to mistake comfort with satisfied. Just because you are comfortable with your job, doesn’t mean that is where you should want to stay. Look for opportunities to become more successful. If not in a new position, make sure you are always expanding your skills and knowledge for where you are. That will keep you fresh, and show your coworkers/managers that you are always giving your best.
