This question came from a busy professional not looking for advancement.

 

Looking to speak with a career counselor about how to communicate with your boss when you are content with your career or not looking for advancement at this particular time.

 

This is a tricky one because you don’t want to give the impression that you never want to improve yourself, advance yourself or receive a salary or bonus.  The exception is if you are planning to retire from the workforce in the next few months.

Why you don’t want to do this

If you explicitly convey that “you are content and don’t want to advance”, you have essentially closed the door on any high-profile projects or interesting opportunities in the future.  You have closed the door to being assigned to learning new technology, new methods and new processes that will be taking your department, company, and industry into the future.

Since you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, closing the door to these things is extremely risky.  Your manager will mentally remove you from future interesting and high-profile projects.  Your manager may misinterpret your desires as “you are currently overwhelmed with your current duties and can no longer take on more responsibilities”.

 

You may find yourself removed from important staff meetings.  You may start to be overlooked on emails regarding new clients or projects. You may find that your salary, like your career, is at a dead end.

You don’t know what you don’t know

You don’t know everything.  You, like most humans, are constantly evolving.

You don’t know:

• What the executives have in mind for the company
• What your manager has in mind for his/her department
• What the next Big Project will entail
• Who will be involved in the next high-profile project
• What exacting mentors and authorities will be engaged and introduced in the next wave of assignments
• What other departments are offering along your interest
• How your manager will interpret your news
• What the consequences of your news are

What to do instead

Rather than communicating that you are content with the way things are and you are not interested in advancement, express the type of projects you are looking forward to working with and the type of clients to which you want to meet and interact.  This way, your manager will be on the look-out for opportunities that match your criteria.

Talk about where you see yourself in five and ten years.  Ask their advice on how to achieve a pay raise or bonus.  A salary increase may simply require a new certification or additional training in an area which you are already interested.

Don’t limit yourself to the things you are assuming.  So what if the management rung is not for you,  those are not the only types of opportunities.  There are technical advancement opportunities, speaking and publishing opportunities, patent opportunities, development & research avenues, etc.

Ask your manager about all the different types of advancement opportunities (technical, management, marketing, strategic design, etc) that have the attributes that you really enjoy.

Don’t argue for your limitations

Just because you enjoy a hamburger doesn’t mean that you won’t like a steak, chicken or fish.

Often times people are “content” because they are not aware of all the exciting things that are actually out there.  They haven’t perused the entire menu of possibilities.

My recommendation is to:

• Explore and learn about all the other things available to you.
• Design your career development plan for 5 and 10 years out.
• Discuss various options with your managers, mentors and success coaches on how to accomplish those goals.
• Then execute on those plans.

Bottom line:

You are not opposed to advancement or salary increases.  What you are really asking for is for “more opportunities” like the ones you are currently working on.  What you are really saying is that you want more jobs that you enjoy and fewer tasks that you don’t enjoy.  After all, that is what everyone wants.

The difference in your case is that you like the majority of things you are currently doing.

The difference in your case is that you can’t imagine things that you will like better.

Don’t allow your lack of imagination limit you.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complimentary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.