Stagnation Isn’t a Matter of Ability
The question “Why can’t I move forward?” often comes with self-criticism: I’m not good enough, I’m not working hard enough, I’m focusing on the wrong things. This instinctive self-assessment is often misleading.
Edgar Schein spent decades at MIT Sloan studying career dynamics and developed the concept of “career anchors” (Career Anchors, 1990). His finding: people gravitate toward a “career anchor” that prioritizes specific values, motivations, and competencies in their professional lives. Career decisions made without awareness of this anchor often create a mismatch between the individual and their environment. And this mismatch feels like a roadblock.
This feeling of being stuck isn’t a talent issue; it may be a fit issue.
Reason 1: Value Mismatch
The company’s priorities and the things the individual values drift apart over time. This shift occurs slowly and often goes unnoticed for a long time. One day, the job starts to feel overwhelming, but the reason isn’t clear.
Within Steven Hayes’s ACT framework, this is defined as “value misalignment”: when behaviors drift away from values, energy drops and a sense of meaninglessness increases. The solution isn’t to work harder; it’s to identify which value isn’t being met.
Reason 2: The Path to Progress Is Not Visible
Teresa Amabile’s research on the progress principle (The Progress Principle, 2011) shows that the strongest daily driver of motivation is the sense of meaningful progress. If this sense is missing—that is, if it’s unclear where the work is leading—stagnation sets in.
Often, objective progress exists but isn’t visible. Making it visible requires leadership and coaching intervention.
Reason 3: Dependence on External Validation
Promotions, pay raises, praise. When these come, you feel good; when they don’t, motivation plummets. Daniel Pink’s research on intrinsic motivation (Drive, 2009) shows that external rewards work in the short term but weaken intrinsic motivation in the long term.
Basing career decisions largely on external validation creates a bottleneck when that validation stops or slows down.
Reason 4: Lack of Awareness of One’s Strengths
Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton’s research on strengths (Now, Discover Your Strengths, 2001) reveals that most people focus on developing their weaknesses rather than the areas where they are truly strong. This leads to a waste of energy.
A strength isn’t just “something you’re good at”; it’s something that energizes you when you do it. This distinction is crucial. The difference between being good at something that drains you and being good at something that nourishes you fundamentally changes your career direction.
Reason 5: Unmet Need for Autonomy
Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory defines autonomy as a fundamental psychological need (2000). Working largely under micromanagement, with limited scope for action, systematically fails to meet this need. The feeling of being stuck often stems from this.
Sometimes this requires a role change. Other times, it involves renegotiating within the same role—to open up more space for autonomy.
“People don’t get stuck because they’re inadequate. They get stuck because they’re the right people in the wrong place.” > Adapted from Edgar Schein, Career Anchors, 1990
Cevvela’s Perspective
- Career stagnation isn’t about lack of talent; it stems from a mismatch of values, invisible progress, dependence on external validation, blind spots regarding one’s strengths, or a need for autonomy.
- Steps taken without identifying which of the five sources is dominant often solve the wrong problem.
- Dependence on external validation works in the short term but erodes intrinsic motivation in the long term (Pink, 2009).
- A strength isn’t just something you’re good at; it’s what energizes you when you do it—this distinction changes your career direction (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001).
- Coaching can be used in this process to identify the true source of the blockage and find steps tailored to that specific source.
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