Hi Friend
Welcome to your weekly dose of personal and career fuel
If you had to define a bigger job for yourself right now, what would that actually mean?
More people on your team? Higher title? Bigger budget?
Or something else entirely.
I ask this question in almost every first coaching conversation. And the answers are almost never what I expect.
Some people say more money. They are performing at a level the market pays significantly more for and they want to close that gap. That is specific and solvable.
Some people say more scope. They want a larger mandate, a seat at a table they are not currently at, work that feels like it has real consequences attached to it.
Some people say more autonomy. They are exhausted by three layers of approval to make a call they already know the answer to. Bigger for them is not a title. It is the ability to actually move.
And some people, when they sit with the question honestly, realise that bigger is not up at all. It is sideways. Into work that actually fits who they are.
The problem is that most people never stop to answer the question before they start pursuing the answer.
They just chase the next level because that is what forward is supposed to look like. More reports. Higher grade. Bigger org. The corporate definition of bigger is almost always vertical.
But the professionals I see who are most energised by their work describe it differently. They describe proximity. To the decision. To the outcome. To the thing that actually matters.
And chasing the wrong version of bigger is one of the most expensive career mistakes you can make. Not because you will not get it. Because you might.
