One of the most dangerous positions you can be in, in a career, in my experience from thousands of hours of coaching, is being exceptionally good at something you’ve secretly outgrown. When you excel at a complex skill, the modern workplace responds with predictable efficiency: it escalates that work to you, builds your performance targets around it, and holds you up as the definitive subject matter expert. Your last three annual reviews praise it. Your peers rely on it. BUT

A client of mine, a director at a global tech company, told me recently about the moment she understood why her VP promotion kept not happening. Her team had prepared a partnership proposal, and she rewrote it herself the night before the executive review because it was faster than explaining what she wanted. The proposal landed well. Her leadership praised the output. And her name still didn't come up when the VP seat opened three months later, because everyone in that room

A few years into a senior role at Google, a more senior colleague pulled me aside after a meeting. "You're the smartest person in that room," she said. "But you're not landing the way you think you are." That sentence stayed with me for a long time. Not only because it stung (it really really did) but because I knew she was right, and I had no idea what to do about it. I had the skills, the track record, the ambition. What I didn't have was anyone who could help me see myself