I had a conversation last week with a Senior Manager who has worked in sales his whole career.

His leaders kept telling that he's on track to become the next Director.

The feedback was always consistent:

“You’re doing great.”
“Just keep going.”
“It’s coming.”

Unfortunately, he had yet to see this promotion.

He told me, “It’s all well and good to say I’m on track to be the next Director.
But it’s not happening.
There aren’t roles for me to step into - and realistically, nothing here is opening up.”

“I’ll take responsibility - I was ready earlier.
But I've just stayed too long.”

“I’ve gained experience, so it’s not all bad.
But I’m at a point now where I’m still doing everything I can here…
I’m just ready to move on to something else.”

The real issue

This isn’t a performance problem.

And it’s usually not bad intent from leadership either.

The issue is structural.

The company simply can’t support the path you’re expecting.

Intent doesn’t equal capacity.

An organization can value you, advocate for you, and want to promote you - and still not have the role, budget, or timing required to make that happen.

If this sounds familiar, here are...

3 signs you’ve stayed in your role too long

1. The next step depends on something outside your control​
   A role opening up. A reorg. A budget shift. You’re waiting for conditions to change.
2. You’re being told you’re “on track,” but nothing is defined​
   No timeline. No specific criteria. No clear path from here to there.
3. You haven’t seen someone like you make the move​
   Same function, similar background and no real example of that progression happening.

None of these mean you’re doing anything wrong.

They just tell you how the system works.

What happens if you don’t address it

If you don’t evaluate this early:

• You stay longer than you should
• Your compensation stalls
• Your external positioning weakens
• And over time, frustration builds

I like to call this the "loyalty cost".

And there's the underestimated personal cost

Another piece to pay attention to is what happens when you’ve been given signals or promises about what’s next - and they don’t materialize.

In many cases, those promises aren’t made with bad intent. Leadership may fully expect things to open up. But priorities shift, roles don’t get approved, or the business changes direction.

The outcome is the same: what you were expecting doesn’t happen.

When that gap shows up, most people start to feel it - frustration, disappointment, often resentment.

That’s normal.

The issue is what happens if you stay in that position without addressing it.

Over time, that frustration doesn’t stay contained to work. It affects how you show up, how you think about your role, and often how you show up outside of work as well.

At that point, it’s no longer just about the organization. It becomes a decision you’re making.

If you’re seeing clear signs that the path you expected isn’t going to materialize, you have two options:

• Stay - and make that a deliberate, informed decision
• Or start evaluating what else is available to you

What doesn’t work is staying by default and continuing to expect a different outcome.

Where real life comes in

Let's be real. Changing roles carries real risk.

You may have a mortgage.
You may be supporting a family.
You may value stability and predictability.

So this isn’t an argument that everyone should leave.

Those constraints are real - and they matter.

But staying should be a clear, thoughtful decision - not a default.

Remember, you can be committed to your company AND still evaluate your own path.

How to think about it more clearly

This is something I help my clients work through inside my coaching program.

We look at how their current skill set translates in the external market - where it’s valued, what roles it maps to, and what kind of compensation and trajectory is realistically available.

But we also evaluate the stay case.

What does it actually look like to stay in your current organization - not just in theory, but in terms of:

• compensation growth
• role progression
• and how it fits with your life and family constraints

When you put both sides next to each other - stay vs move - it becomes much easier to see what you’re actually choosing.

It’s not a quick decision.

But it’s a structured one - and that’s where most people gain clarity.

Let's bring this home

At a certain point, this stops being about patience.

It becomes about clarity.

If you’re not sure whether your company can actually support where you want to go, reply with “growth” and tell me what you’re seeing.

I’ll help you think it through.

Until next week,
Beckie

PS Want to talk through your career direction? I open a limited number of free Career Strategy Calls each month.

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