I've hit a few career plateaus throughout my journey, and each time, I found growth by intentionally being a bit disruptive. Disruptive in the sense that I actively sought out challenges beyond the title I held, the role I was hire for, or the opportunities typically offered, especially as the only woman asking for that kind of consideration. Early on, I moved quickly through the HR function, building expertise across disciplines until I had a firm grasp on the entire function and felt I could lead others. That season of my career was exciting, fulfilling, and fun. I was thriving, but I still wanted more. So, I started asking for stretch assignments, exposure to the board, and cross-functional projects that would expand my perspective beyond HR and into the business as a whole. One of my most pivotal moments came at the C-Suite level. I found myself craving new ways to contribute and grow, so I stepped into an acting COO role - without the formal title. That shift opened the door to entirely new kinds of problem-solving, deeper collaboration across departments, and the opportunity to serve the organization in a more holistic, meaningful way. But, eventually I hit my final plateau - the kind that doesn't get solved with a promotion or new project. That's when I decided to truly embrace my persona motto: get comfortable with being uncomfortable and I launched 22 North HR. As a solopreneur, my reach is no longer limited. I choose the work I say yes to, the partnerships I nurture, and the impact I want to make. My purpose is ignited, my passion is renewed, and my story is still being written
Leadership & Transformation Career Coach & Founder, PCC at Radiant Firefly
Answered 9 months ago
Professionals generally want to work hard, feel valued for what they do, understand how their role connects to the organization they work for, and live a good life. They are so driven to continue to add value to the organizations and teams they work for, they often don't take the time to reflect on their contributions and connect it to where they want to go and what they want to do, which often leads to a career plateau. They end up in autopilot going through their days doing the best they can until they realize they've plateaued, or want something more or different. This awareness is a great opportunity to pause, reflect, and uncover new opportunities for advancement. With clients I work with, we start identifying what they enjoy, what they want more of, and what they don't enjoy, or what they don't want more of. We uncover what success looks like for them, and what they want to feel when they step away from their career at retirement along with what they'd have regrets about not doing at this intersection. This is an important component as making change is often scary, and taking steps towards the right thing instead of falling into the something that's going to have them feeling similarly makes a difference. From there, we take stock of their impact, experience, and leadership so they can reflect on what they've achieved (and why it matters), track success stories so speak about their work with clarity, confidence, and alignment. From their, how can they stay visible, valuable, and empowered to ask for something more in their current roles or strategize how to look for it elsewhere through avenues like networking. Without this process, clients are often so disconnected to the incredible impact they've had in their careers at this point, from entry level to very senior, the pause and reflection makes a huge difference and allows one to regroup and determine what advancement looks like for them and how to strategically make it happen. Clients who do this go from overwhelmed with too many options to finding clarity and confidence about what they really want, makes the ask for advancement so much easier, and land in roles they feel aligned with and happier about.
It is a feeling that can begin to creep up over time and eventually one may experience career stagnation. To break free of these doldrums within a career, there has to be a strategy created to uncover new opportunities for advancement. One strategy that I have seen work is to find a more senior colleague that can serve as a mentor/sounding board for career challenges and opportunities. There are typically formal programs within a workplace where employees can obtain mentorship and if it doesn't exist, then find an organization outside of work that can provide a mentor. It is important to consider who can best serve as your mentor, some qualities to consider is their current work experience, skills, and/or companies they have worked for during their career. I have sought out mentorship outside my work environment when I was considering the next steps in my career, and I have also served as a mentor in my work environments. Through one experience, over the course of 9 months, I had the opportunity to coach and support the development of a junior professional in a mentoring program where I facilitated 32 one-on-one development sessions. We discussed both challenges and opportunities to address her desire to progress to the next stage of her career. After completion of the program, my protege continued focusing on her strategy to address her career needs and she went through the process to secure a new role for herself. In my case, I was able to learn from a senior professional and ended the mentorship program with a plan as to how I would seek out new opportunities to advance my career. Another approach to uncover new opportunities and add new skills for advancement is to volunteer. I took this approach, before business school, to gain experiences and transferrable skills as a consultant, project manager, and mentor for various pro bono consulting projects. Finally, assess on a periodic basis how you feel about your work environment. Questions to consider are: 1) Are you utilizing your skills to have the impact you desire? 2) Are you doing work in an environment where you can thrive? 3) Are you compensated for the level of work you produce? To avoid reaching a career plateau, conduct an assessment on a periodic basis (e.g., every 3 or 6 months) to determine career satisfaction. Conducting these periodic assessments will thwart the possibility of a career plateau because there will be a strategic approach to deflect career stagnation.
A few years into running Petners (a nonprofit feeding stray animals of Ukraine), I hit a plateau - not just in growth, but in my own role as a founder and an operator. We were doing the same things week after week: writing posts, sending newsletters, pitching donors and partners. None of it was broken, but none of it was leading anywhere new either. The shift came from tiny, messy experiments. One of those experiments involved using AI to speed up content creation. That became the spark for building Kweet - an AI-powered tool that helps nonprofit create donor-centric content. Suddenly, I wasn't just leading a stuck nonprofit - I was launching a tool that could help other nonprofits grow. New conversations started, new doors opened, and I had a new way to grow - not just my org, but my career. I believe that's the most underrated part of experimentation: it doesn't just improve what you're doing - it can completely reshape who you are in your work. When you start treating stuck moments like playground for tests, your role evolves with the process. Experimentation today is unusually accessible, too. We don't need a growth team or user testing lab - you can get Lovable, n8n and build something within hours, not months.
I reached my career plateau when I became the Head of Technology and Innovation at Etihad Airways. Now you might ask, how did I come to that conclusion? The answer is simple - I tried for various positions at the next level, but I kept getting rejections. The matter is simple. As you climb the ladder, the number of positions get smaller. The ratio of the number of professionals applying for senior positions compared to the number of available positions is lower. This is frustrating for any professional and it was the same for me. So how did I address this? There are two ways you can manage this. First you can sulk about it (which I did for a few weeks) and Second, I decided that if I had to stand out, I had to be one better than the peers around me. That's when I learnt about personal branding. So I started going through Youtube to understand what others were doing to enhance their personal brand. It was clear - I had to show myself as an expert in my field. So I decided to use the most common medium to get my message out there - a website. I created a website under my name, noeldcosta.com, and I started to post articles around my area of expertise. But I wasn't getting any traffic. So I learnt that my website needed Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It took me around a couple of weeks (and a few weeks of trial and error), before which I started getting traffic to my website. With all the new traffic coming to my website and the articles that I carefully wrote, i started to receive queries and questions about my expertise. That started to open the floodgates of queries from recruiters and senior executives. New opportunities started to come my way and my confidence started to grow in leaps and bounds. I finally zeroed down on the opportunity that I wanted and went ahead in my career. So finally what I learnt from this experience was as follows: 1. Rather than sulk about the situation, do something constructive with your time and learn new skills 2. Learning new skills at an older age can be difficult, but with a progressive mindset, there is nothing you can't do. 3. Be prepared to jump outside of your comfort zone. You will be surprised where life takes you. These three learning might be simple, but it takes a lot of effort, patience and dedication. You will achieve success if you have the right mindset.
Addressing a skills/knowledge gap can be an effective way of uncovering new opportunities for advancement. It is good to have a niche, and extensive expertise in a particular domain - but often, needs of the organization you work at, or the industry you belong to, might change over time. Acquiring new skills might become pivotal for success, and a lack of these skills might actually hinder your career progression. Once you find yourself in the career plateau, ask yourself these questions: 1. Who amongst your peers are experiencing the kind of career progression which would make you happy. 2. What skills do they have which have enabled that? 3. What skills are the most valued in your domain/industry at that point in time? Once you have identified the gaps, formulate a plan to gain these new skills. Identify courses you can take, or networks you can leverage to get you foothold in the new, unfamiliar territory. I personally used this method when I hit the 5 year mark into my career as a software engineer. Even though I had experienced early success, I was still worried about reaching stagnation. I realized that I need to be more product/domain/business minded instead of just focussing on my tech skills. Hence, I pursed an MBA - which opened up a whole host of opportunities for me.
In my experience, when I hit a career plateau, I realized that I was often obsessing over the "what" —what was next, what my next title would be, where I would land in the company, etc. Instead, what I needed to ground in was clarity around the "why" I do the work I do in the first place. This reframe allowed me to reflect on moments in my career where I felt most energized and in alignment-- there are clear patterns and themes in these moments. In this reflection, it became clear to me that I am driven by evolving cultures into those where more people feel seen, where equity is baked into systems, and where leadership reflects lived values -- not just business outcomes. I was able to use this clarity to evaluate opportunities differently, advocate for purpose-aligned projects (even within my current role), and move toward designing roles that didn't previously exist. By regrounding my next move in my why, I was able to make intentional, values-aligned choices that reignited my momentum.
When facing a career plateau I took a Birkman assessment (https://birkman.com/) and found it very valuable. This assessment has high internal validity, meaning that at different points in your life there's a high likelihood that you'll get the same results. This is important as it is a tool that you can refer back to later in on your professional journey. It looks both at the types of careers that will work for you, but it also looks at the characteristics of different job environments that will help you excel. As part of the process, you work with a coach to analyze the results, and to use them to help with essential tasks like updating resumes and LinkedIn profiles to highlight core findings from the assessment that would make you attractive as a candidate. I was able to use this assessment to improve how I spoke about myself as a team member and what I can contribute to a team. I was able to quickly move to a role that allowed me to grow, build skills, and set me up for what came next.
One of the tried and true methods for uncovering new opportunities in your career is to consider going back to school in some capacity. It doesn't always have to be full-time, but going back to school allows you to expand your knowledge, make yourself even more marketable, and, in some programs, you'll get certain industry certifications that are becoming more essential in a crowded sea of professionals. Not to mention going back to school while in your career affords you with a new networking pool to draw from, helping you make new connections that can help you in your career in ways you can't yet begin to predict.
I learned a strategy from a colleague of mine who used it to change his career successfully. I went to my manager at the time and told him my goals and what kind of work I wanted to do. A couple of months later he said there was an opening in another department. I already knew the other manager, so I moved internally to that department without any internal job ever being posted. That's how I pivoted from working in the TV studio to working on entertainment marketing campaigns. It's really important to be proactive in your career and tell people what you want. This strategy works because it helps change other people's perspective of you beyond your current role.
After 30+ years in leadership development, I've seen countless executives hit plateaus when they keep trying to solve bigger problems with the same skillset that got them there. The most effective strategy I've used is deliberately moving leaders into "adjacent challenges" - roles or projects that stretch them horizontally rather than just vertically. I coached a managing director named Tomi who led a 1,500-person business unit but felt stuck. He was brilliant operationally but spent all his time micromanaging day-to-day issues his team could handle. We shifted his focus to the complex strategic relationships and cross-functional challenges that only he could tackle - suddenly his team felt empowered and he was adding value at his actual level. The key insight: plateaus happen when you're optimizing skills you've already mastered instead of developing the capabilities your next level demands. I did this myself when I left academia to start a healthcare software company in 1994 - completely different muscles, but my psychology background gave me unique advantages in understanding user needs and team dynamics. Most people wait for permission to stretch into new territory. The breakthrough comes when you actively seek out the problems that feel slightly uncomfortable - that's where growth lives.
As someone who built a psychology practice from a solo operation to multiple locations with major contracts, I've learned that career plateaus dissolve when you start training others in your expertise. When I felt stuck in traditional clinical work, I made the strategic decision to develop APPIC-membership training programs for doctoral interns and postdoctoral fellows. This shift forced me to systematize my knowledge and think beyond individual client work. Within three years of launching our training initiatives in 2019, we expanded from one location to three, including state-of-the-art facilities in Sacramento, South Lake Tahoe, and San Jose. The training programs became a revenue stream while positioning us as industry leaders. The concrete impact was immediate - our trainee network became our best referral source, and the expertise we developed in curriculum design opened doors to consulting opportunities I never knew existed. Goldman Sachs selected me for their 10,000 Small Business National Cohort 22 specifically because of this training model's scalability. My advice: identify one skill you're already good at and create a formal way to teach it to others. Whether it's mentoring, workshops, or certification programs, teaching forces you to become an expert rather than just a practitioner. The people you train become your professional network, and suddenly you're seen as a thought leader rather than just another service provider.
One point I'd like to make here is that finding new opportunities doesn't always need to mean changing to a different employer, or even changing titles. I'll give an example from my career to demonstrate. There was a point about 7-8 years ago when I felt I had hit a plateau in my recruiting career. Summit Search Group was stable and profitable, but my office wasn't growing the way I wanted it to, and I felt like I was spending all of my time managing operations instead of developing new business or making strategic plans to drive future growth. It felt like I was just maintaining, not leading. I had to make a deliberate mindset shift to get beyond this plateau. I made a conscious choice to adjust my thinking from an operator mindset to a client development and strategy mindset. Toward this end, I carved out dedicated time every week to meet with clients, not so I could pitch roles but so that I could learn about their pain points around hiring, retention, and workforce planning. Through these conversations, I learned that many of them struggled with employer branding and recruitment marketing, an area we hadn't formally addressed with our clients as a firm. The result of this was that I decided to champion the development of an employer branding and recruitment marketing service line. We partnered with marketing consultants who provided training to our recruiters in these areas, then offered this new service to clients alongside our traditional recruiting. In the process, we created new revenue streams in addition to strengthening our client relationships. This approach was effective because I realized my plateau wasn't about my own skill ceiling, but instead the fact that our value proposition as a firm had stagnated. Getting closer to clients and better understanding their needs helped me realign my personal growth with the firm's strategic growth, which reinvigorated my sense of purpose. Often, that kind of mindset shift is critical for continued advancement once you've already reached a leadership position. Being willing to lead your team into new territory, even when it feels like a risk, is sometimes the best way to keep finding new opportunities for growth.
It's incredibly helpful to speak to a recruiter if you're feeling stuck at a career plateau -- and I'm not just saying that because I am one. I genuinely believe most professionals underestimate how much insight we have access to. Recruiters are sitting on top of real-time data: salary trends, hiring patterns, in-demand skills by sector, and emerging roles that don't always make it to public job boards. We're career strategists, not just job matchers. Too often, workers think they should only approach a recruiter when they're actively job hunting. But that's a missed opportunity. In reality, some of our most valuable conversations happen when people aren't sure what comes next, but know they're ready for growth. We help identify options they may not see, from upskilling recommendations to industry pivots that align with their experience. Recently, I had a great example of this. A woman in the construction sector came to me feeling like she'd hit a wall. She was a highly capable engineer, but she couldn't see a way forward at her company and assumed she'd maxed out her trajectory. But based on current hiring trends I'd seen, I knew there was a surge in demand for engineering talent in renewable energy infrastructure, especially for professionals with her exact field experience. Because she came to me early, we were able to map out a plan: she took a targeted certification, refined her internal pitch, and positioned herself as a bridge between traditional construction and renewable project integration. Within six months, she was promoted into a leadership role focused on her company's new clean energy division. That's the power of talking to a recruiter before you're in full job-search mode.
After 25 years building CC&A Strategic Media, I've learned that career plateaus happen when you stop learning about what drives people. When I felt stuck around 2015, I made a counterintuitive move—I started studying psychology and human behavior instead of just focusing on technical marketing skills. This shift completely transformed my approach. Instead of just building websites and running campaigns, I began understanding why people make buying decisions and how emotions drive business relationships. Within 18 months, this knowledge helped me transition CC&A from a basic web design firm into a marketing psychology consultancy, which tripled our client retention rate. The breakthrough came when I applied behavioral insights to help a struggling client increase their conversion rates by 340% just by changing how they presented their pricing structure. That success story opened doors I never expected—including expert witness work with the Maryland Attorney General's office and speaking engagements alongside Yahoo's CMO. My advice: identify the psychological or behavioral component of your industry that most people ignore. Master that human element, and you'll find opportunities everywhere because most professionals focus only on technical skills while missing what actually drives decisions and relationships.
After nearly two decades in the career services industry, I've seen countless professionals break through plateaus using what I call the "expertise multiplication strategy." The key is taking your existing knowledge and applying it in an unexpected direction that creates new value. One of our PARWCC members hit a wall after five years of traditional résumé writing. Instead of staying stuck, she combined her writing skills with her military spouse background to create a specialized service for military families navigating relocations. Within six months, she went from competing with thousands of general résumé writers to being the go-to expert for a specific, underserved market. The pattern I've observed across our 3,000+ certified professionals is that breakthroughs happen when you stop trying to climb higher in your current lane and start building bridges to adjacent opportunities. Look at what problems you're already solving, then ask who else needs that same solution but isn't being served well. At PARWCC, we've formalized this approach through our niche certifications like the Certified Veteran Career Strategist (CVCS). Members who add these specializations typically see 40-60% revenue increases because they're no longer competing on price—they're competing on specialized expertise that commands premium rates.
Growth doesn't happen in a straight line. There are seasons of expansion and seasons of recalibration. A plateau often marks the space in between, serving as an invitation to check in with yourself. It's easy to forget that careers evolve, and so do you. Often, in ways you don't fully realize until something feels off. Priorities shift, new strengths surface, values change... and if you don't pause to check in with those shifts, it's easy to keep chasing old goals or staying in roles that no longer reflect who you are. When that happens, this three-step reset can help you find the clarity needed to move forward: 1. Clarify Your Values. What matters most to you right now? Not five years ago, but today? And what are you no longer willing to compromise. 2. Evaluate Your Strengths. What are you naturally good at, and how could you bring more of that into your day-to-day? 3. Envision Your Future Self. What kind of work, impact, or lifestyle do you want to move toward? And what small steps could you take now to start bridging the gap? That combination — values to guide you, strengths to fuel you, and a vision to pull you — creates the kind of momentum that leads to meaningful change. It's a type of check-in that can be clarifying, and sometimes even surprising. One client I worked with realized they hadn't lost their motivation, they'd simply outgrown the industry they'd spent the last decade in. This insight gave them the clarity (and permission) to explore new possibilities that felt more aligned with who they are now. And that exploration completely changed their career trajectory. They're now in a new industry, doing work they love, and putting their best strengths to use on a daily basis. That's what a plateau can offer... a chance to stop, take stock, and choose what's next with greater clarity.
Hitting a career plateau can feel like slamming into an invisible wall—one where your output stays high, your intentions stay focused, but your opportunities seem to dry up. While frustrating, this phase often signals that you've outgrown your current space, and it's time to reframe your approach. One particularly effective strategy to reignite momentum is leveraging intentional skill expansion through strategic stretch projects. Rather than waiting for roles or recognition to arrive, professionals who identify skill gaps and proactively pursue growth initiatives often see breakthroughs both in trajectory and visibility. Stretch projects—assignments or initiatives that push you outside your comfort zone—offer a unique way to develop the exact competencies you need to advance. When chosen intentionally, they allow you to build missing leadership, communication, or cross-functional skills without needing to formally change your role first. These projects are often hiding in plain sight: neglected cross-team collaborations, process improvements that need a champion, or strategic problems your organization hasn't yet solved. The most important part of this strategy is clarity. You must first diagnose why you're plateauing. Is it a lack of executive presence? Not enough influence beyond your immediate team? Too little visibility? Once you name the gap, you can pursue a stretch opportunity that precisely targets it. Dana, a mid-level project manager at a global logistics firm, came to us at Mindful Career after five years in the same role. Her performance reviews were glowing, but her career had stalled. Together, we dissected her desired next role—Senior Program Manager—and compared it to her current scope. The gaps weren't technical. What she lacked were leadership exposure, broader stakeholder influence, and strategic storytelling abilities. A career plateau is not the end of growth—it's a fork in the road that demands a more creative path forward. Strategic stretch projects offer a focused, actionable way to break past stagnation by bridging the gap between your current role and your future potential. When paired with clarity and intentional planning, they can reinvigorate your career, expand your network, and place you in front of decision-makers who previously had no visibility into your strengths. Like Dana, anyone feeling stuck can turn a plateau into a pivot point—not by waiting for opportunity, but by building it.
Hitting a career plateau can feel like a standstill—but it's often the exact pressure point that pushes leaders into their next chapter of growth. One effective strategy I've seen work repeatedly is this: shift the focus from performance to perspective. A coaching client of mine, a VP of Operations at a fast-scaling consumer brand, came to me feeling stuck. She was delivering results—but not advancing. We started by reframing the question. Instead of "What more can I do?" we explored "How am I showing up?" and "What conversations am I not initiating?" It quickly became clear that her visibility, not her value, was the barrier. She identified three steps: Proactively share strategic wins with the executive team—not just operational outcomes. Ask for feedback tied to growth, not just current performance. Initiate conversations about her career trajectory, rather than waiting for recognition. Within six months, she was tapped to lead a cross-functional transformation initiative and is now being groomed for a C-suite role. The takeaway: When you feel stuck, focus less on doing more—and more on reframing your value, communicating your impact, and advocating for the growth you want.
A career plateau often signals it's time to shift gears, not just speed. One strategy that proved powerful was engaging with roles and conversations outside the comfort zone. For example, during a period of stagnation, I took on mentoring founders from completely different sectors. Listening to their challenges and sharing leadership insights helped me view my own business model through a new lens. That fresh perspective eventually led to the launch of a new service vertical within Edstellar—something that hadn't been on the roadmap. The key wasn't working harder—it was reframing relevance. By immersing in unfamiliar territory and asking better questions, opportunities surfaced in places previously overlooked. That mindset helped transition from incremental progress to exponential growth. Plateaus aren't dead ends—they're invitations to reimagine what success looks like.