Executives Are Struggling To Grow In Their Careers: What Can Be Done To Help?

Key Takeaways

• Executives across industries are increasingly confronting career stagnation, marked by a lack of fulfillment and unclear advancement pathways.
• Common contributors to executive disengagement include operational overload, role isolation, unclear succession planning, and shifting market conditions.
• Strategic career development requires a multifaceted approach including continuous learning, executive coaching, peer networking, and mentorship.
• Obvious Candidate supports leaders in reclaiming direction and momentum by offering tailored programs that help define and navigate meaningful next steps.
• A personalised roadmap helps executives move beyond plateaus and reconnect with purpose and long-term goals.

Executive Career Stagnation: A Quiet Crisis at the Top

Leadership success is often defined by relentless forward momentum—climbing ranks, leading initiatives, and building empires. Yet, what happens when the momentum slows? Increasingly, executives are discovering that reaching senior leadership doesn’t come with a roadmap for what’s next. Instead, it often leads to a plateau—a place of high responsibility but unclear personal progression.

Executives in this situation may not express discontent openly. After all, from the outside, they’ve "made it." But underneath the prestige of title and influence lies a deeper struggle: the question of meaning, direction, and what personal growth looks like once you’ve reached the top.

Obvious Candidate regularly works with executives in this exact place. The organisation helps these leaders identify what fulfillment and future-readiness look like in today’s volatile business environment.

What's Fueling Executive Disengagement?

The Perfect Storm: Multiple Pressures Converging

Executive roles today are more complex than ever. Leaders must juggle digital transformation, evolving workplace expectations, global economic pressures, and shifting generational dynamics. Hybrid workforces bring both flexibility and friction, and the cultural push for diversity, equity, and inclusion demands intentional, often difficult, internal work.

All of these responsibilities require more than just operational excellence—they require emotional intelligence, vision, and stamina. When those demands stack up without space for reflection or development, it’s easy to lose clarity and connection to one's purpose.

The Career Ceiling: What Comes After “Success”?

Reaching the C-suite used to mean professional validation. Now, it sometimes represents a finishing line rather than a launching pad. With fewer defined upward paths, many leaders experience a kind of executive inertia—being busy without feeling challenged, active without feeling inspired.

For some, the next step isn’t even upward—it’s sideways into entrepreneurship, advisory roles, nonprofit leadership, or portfolio careers. But exploring those shifts requires time, guidance, and often a reassessment of professional identity.

The Isolation Factor

One under-discussed element of executive stagnation is isolation. As leaders rise, peer groups shrink. There are fewer people within an organisation who can relate to the specific challenges executives face. Trust becomes harder to extend, and opportunities for honest career conversations diminish.

Additionally, executives may hesitate to voice uncertainty for fear it signals weakness or instability. This creates an echo chamber where external expectations drown out internal aspirations, further delaying important personal and professional pivots.

Assessing Readiness for Growth

Going Beyond Performance Metrics

At lower levels of an organisation, career development is often tied to clearly defined KPIs and promotions. At the executive level, growth becomes more nuanced. Leaders must consider how they are shaping organisational culture, enabling innovation, mentoring others, and contributing to broader industry or societal conversations.

An expanded definition of success is key: Are you developing the next generation of leadership? Are you steering the company into new markets? Are you increasing value without burning out your team or yourself?

Seeking Broader Feedback

Executives often receive limited direct feedback. Tools like 360-degree reviews, facilitated peer panels, or executive coach debriefs offer more candid insight into how a leader is perceived and where potential blind spots may lie.

These approaches provide clarity on how behavior, communication style, or decision-making affects others—a valuable perspective for identifying growth opportunities beyond surface-level achievements.

Exploring Psychometric and Leadership Assessments

Well-constructed assessments can help executives rediscover their strengths, understand their values, and anticipate how they perform under pressure. These tools also surface questions worth revisiting:

• What kind of leader are you under stress?
• Which strengths may become liabilities in certain contexts?
• Are your personal values still aligned with your organisation’s trajectory?

The answers to these questions form the foundation for authentic, lasting growth.

9 Strategic Pathways for Executive Career Development

1. Set a Clear and Evolving Vision

Just as companies need strategic direction, so do executives. It’s essential to create a personal vision—not just for what you want to achieve, but for who you want to become.

Ask yourself:

• What kind of impact do I want to have in the next 5 years?
• Which conversations or causes energise me?
• What legacy am I building?

Reconnecting with your deeper purpose can provide the clarity and fuel to guide your next chapter.

2. Design a Personal Learning Plan

At the executive level, development needs to be intentional. This might include curated reading lists, attending specific leadership summits, enrolling in short-form executive education programs, or studying industries adjacent to your own.

The key is to seek learning that stretches your thinking rather than simply reinforcing what you already know.

3. Reengage with Mentors—and Become One

Having a mentor isn’t just for junior employees. Trusted advisors who have navigated similar decisions can offer invaluable perspective and support.

Equally, acting as a mentor helps sharpen your own insights. By coaching others, you reinforce what you’ve learned, expand your emotional intelligence, and often rediscover your own aspirations through the eyes of emerging talent.

4. Develop Executive Presence Through New Challenges

Executive presence isn’t just about charisma—it’s about clarity, conviction, and calm in the face of complexity. Taking on visible stretch projects, serving on advisory boards, or speaking at industry events can elevate your profile while helping refine your leadership style in new arenas.

5. Strengthen Your Strategic Network

At this level, networking becomes less about quantity and more about quality. Building relationships with thoughtful, innovative leaders across sectors exposes you to new models, business ideas, and collaboration opportunities.

Executive networks also offer safe spaces to discuss challenges, test ideas, and explore future moves with discretion and support.

6. Explore Alternative Career Models

For many seasoned executives, the next fulfilling chapter doesn’t lie in a single role. It might be a combination of board service, consulting, teaching, impact investing, or launching a passion-driven venture.

Exploring these hybrid models requires time and planning—but offers a broader canvas for using your skills and experience in meaningful ways.

7. Prioritise Resilience and Wellbeing

Leadership is demanding. Without intentional routines to recover and renew, even the most resilient executives can burn out. Consider mental fitness a non-negotiable part of professional performance.

Whether through coaching, wellness retreats, regular physical movement, or unplugged time with family, protecting your energy is an investment in both longevity and leadership effectiveness.

8. Clarify Your Legacy

Legacy isn’t just about what you leave behind—it’s about what you’re building right now. Whether that’s growing a high-performing team, launching an innovation that redefines your industry, or modeling inclusive leadership—your daily actions shape the long-term imprint you leave on others.

9. Align with Evolving Values

Your values change over time. It’s normal. What mattered a decade ago might feel less meaningful today. Taking time to reflect on your evolving priorities—be it impact, autonomy, balance, or creativity—helps ensure your work stays aligned with your purpose.

Crafting a Personalised Executive Development Plan

Your growth deserves as much strategic attention as your company’s. Creating a plan begins with reflection:

• Where am I right now?
• Where do I want to be next?
• What skills, relationships, and resources will help me get there?

Working with an executive coach or using a structured framework like those offered by Obvious Candidate can clarify this journey. From short-term sprints to long-term roadmaps, having a plan keeps you accountable—and inspired.

Reclaiming Momentum: From Plateaus to Purpose

Executive plateaus aren’t the end of the road—they’re a sign that it’s time for reinvention. The most successful leaders see these moments as an opportunity to dig deeper, step back, and create the space necessary for true breakthrough.

It takes courage to acknowledge stagnation. It takes vision to imagine something new. But with the right support, strategic insight, and inner clarity, executives can reclaim momentum—and chart a course that brings fulfillment, innovation, and legacy together.

Obvious Candidate works with leaders ready to take that next step—by creating tools, offering guidance, and helping redefine success on your own terms.