The uncomfortable truth about career progression
Readtime: 3 minutes
Quickly before we start, Atomic Ambition will be opening soon for the January cohort. Don’t let your best years slip by on autopilot. Click here to find out more.
Early in my career, I believed something very simple:
If I worked hard enough…
If I was talented enough…
If I consistently delivered good work…
Everything else would take care of itself.
It felt fair. Logical. Comforting.
And it was wrong.
Over time, I started noticing something uncomfortable. People who weren’t the smartest in the room were moving faster. People whose work wasn’t objectively better were getting bigger opportunities. People who talked more about their work seemed to advance more than those quietly producing it.
At first, I told myself they were just lucky.
But eventually, I had to confront the truth.
Career progression isn’t purely meritocratic.
It’s human.
Which means that it’s shaped by perception, relationships, and context. And most importantly, by how clearly other people can see the value you bring.
Quiet excellence doesn’t work.
The world doesn’t automatically notice your contribution just because it exists. If people can’t easily point to what you do, why it matters, and how it connects to what they care about, they’ll overlook you. Not maliciously. Not intentionally.
They’ll just move on.
That’s when I realised something that changed how I approached my career entirely:
Being valuable and being seen as valuable are not the same thing.
What actually drives career success
Performance matters. Of course it does.
But performance alone just gets you in the room.
The people who consistently move forward tend to understand three things that many talented professionals miss:
Visibility matters.
If decision-makers don’t see your work, it may as well not exist. You have to speak up in meetings, share your progress, and make your outcomes visible.
Influence is about trust.
The most influential people are the ones others turn to when things matter. They’re known for something specific and valuable. Over time, their names come up in rooms they’re not even in.
Positioning beats effort.
Working harder inside the wrong priorities doesn’t move you forward. The real game is aligning your effort with what the organisation actually values now – and what it’s likely to value next.
This was a tough lesson for me.
I liked being the reliable one. The person who delivered. The person who “just got on with it”. But careers don’t progress on effort alone. They progress on clarity.
Clarity of value.
Clarity of impact.
Clarity of direction.
The trap smart people fall into
Many high performers spend years optimising for their current role.
They become indispensable in the job they’re already in.
Which sounds good. Until you realise it can work against you.
If all your energy goes into excelling at today’s responsibilities, with no attention paid to visibility, influence, or future relevance, you risk being seen as great where you are – and nowhere else.
That’s when careers stall.
Not because of a lack of talent.
But because of a lack of positioning.
How to apply this (without becoming someone you’re not)
This isn’t about being louder, more political, or less authentic.
It’s about being intentional.
Ask yourself:
Do the right people know what I’m working on and why it matters?
Am I known for something specific that others rely on?
Am I aligning my effort with where the organisation is going, or just where it’s been?
Small shifts here compound fast.
Sharing outcomes instead of just doing the work.
Taking on visible projects that signal readiness for more responsibility.
Building trust by helping others succeed, not competing with them.
This is how influence grows quietly but powerfully.
The bottom line
Talent is important.
Hard work is important.
But they’re not enough on their own.
Your career doesn’t move forward simply because you deserve it. It moves forward when your value is understood, trusted, and positioned in the right places.
And the good news?
You don’t need permission to start doing that.
You don’t need to change jobs.
You don’t need to become someone else.
You can reignite growth right where you are.
That’s all for this week.
See you next week, on Christmas morning… (I know, it wouldn’t be Christmas without an email from me…)
Mostyn
P.S. Atomic Ambition will be opening soon for the January cohort. Don’t let your best years slip by on autopilot. Click here to find out more.