You Are Allowed to Want More of Your Career

Somewhere along the way, a lot of capable people picked up the idea that wanting more from their career is a bit much. Ungrateful, even. You’ve got a good job. Other people have it worse. Why can’t you just be happy with what you’ve got?

Let’s deal with that one directly: you are allowed to want more control over your career. Full stop. No justification required.

Robert’s story

Robert had built a genuinely strong career; he had a good role, a good reputation and he was respected by the people who worked with him. On paper, there was nothing to complain about.

Yet he came to coaching because something didn’t feel right: he couldn’t actually articulate his own professional value. Ask him what he was good at, and he’d default to modesty and vague generalities, even though the evidence of his impact was everywhere around him.

He would praise his team rather than his input and would actively shy away from praise, feedback and compliments.

Robert didn’t want to be more ambitions . This was about giving himself permission to name what he already knew was true – that his experience, his judgement, and his impact were worth something specific.

Over the course of our coaching together he realised that wanting his value to be fully recognised and accepting that recognition wasn’t greedy or selfish – it both reasonable and necessary for his career growth.

Wanting more isn’t the same as being ungrateful

You can genuinely appreciate what you have and still want it to be better. Those two things are not in conflict, whatever the voice in your head is telling you. Wanting to be paid what you’re worth, heard in the room, considered for the opportunities you’re capable of – that’s not entitlement. That’s just refusing to settle for less than what’s true about you.

Permission is the whole first step

I believe that before any career plan, before any interview prep, before any conversation with your manager there’s a quieter, more foundational step: deciding you’re allowed to want this at all and knowing your full carer value.

If you’ve been sitting on the sense that you want more, but haven’t quite let yourself say it then come along to  my free session Own Your Career Value

I’ve created this masterclass exactly for this moment. You’ll leave with your own Career Value Statements: 5 clear, confident ways to describe what you bring, in your own words, ready to use in your next appraisal, interview, or big conversation.

Join me on Tuesday 15th September, 6pm, or Thursday 24th September, 12pm.