Is your manager dodging your career growth?

Welcome to another edition of Sticky Situations, where your office dilemmas turn into productive leadership learnings. We’ll feature a situation submitted by you, with our advice on how to approach it. There’s no shortage of sticky stuff at work, so let’s get into it.

Today’s topic is not getting clear (or any) guidance on your career growth from your manager. ICs + managers - read on!

The Situation

I don’t have a clear idea of what my career progression is in my role. My manager is not able to give me clear guidance on what is next. We have “career conversations” but they are not helpful. I know they probably don’t have many answers because there isn’t much movement right now at my company, but it’s hard to feel motivated when I have no direction or support. What can I do to feel like I’m growing?

My Take

If anyone hasn’t dealt with this in their career, they should consider themselves an anomaly. As you say, there may be some macro-circumstances constraining your manager from giving you clear guidance, but there’s plenty to be done here, on both of your parts.

Managers: Forward to your team so they can have better convos with you!

1️⃣ Take the driver’s seat. Prepare more explicit asks for your next career conversation.

First, if you are reading this and don’t have a career development conversation on the calendar with your manager, go schedule it! You own your career growth so carve out the time to discuss it.

Track your Loves (what gives you energy) vs. your Hates (what drains you). Notice the themes. Take your loves and think about how you can get more exposure in those things, more projects with those teams, a role highlighting these aspects. Turn these into output and input goals. Share them verbatim with your manager. Here are some examples:

• Output: Become a manager by Q3 2026.

• Input: Mentor two people and be an onboarding buddy for three new hires in 2025.

• Input: Take manager onboarding trainings by Dec 2025.

Ask explicit questions: Don’t assume they will give you all the feedback and info upfront. Ask questions you want the answers to. Your goal is to leave with clarity.

• Are these timelines realistic?

• Is there anything else I should be doing to achieve this output goal?

• Are there any gaps, in either my performance or team circumstances, that would prevent me from achieving this?

Have specific asks of your manager: Brainstorm how they can help you achieve these goals. Document the actions you discussed so you can follow up.

• Can you introduce me to that new hiring manager? I want to propose being an onboarding buddy for their new hires.

• Do you know anyone looking for a mentor?

• Can you suggest any good trainings I can take to help prepare me for managing?

If you ask explicit questions, you should get explicit answers. However, be ready to hear the answer. It may not be exactly what you were expecting or hoping for.

2️⃣ Seek advice.

Your manager is not the only one who can help here. Do you have a 1:1 with your skip-level? This could provide helpful perspective on what’s happening in the org and what the perception is of your performance or readiness for your goals. Share a high level recap of what you and your manager discussed and ask your skip for their advice as you set out to achieve these goals. Prepare specific questions.

If a skip-level 1:1 is not in the cards (Maybe your skip is Andy Jassy or something. Actually, no, still have the skip-level 1:1), seek advice from your mentor. Is there anything else to consider as you set out to achieve these goals?

3️⃣ Use the responses as data points.

Did your manager answer you honestly, even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear? That’s transparent support. Now you can make a clearer decision about what’s next based on their response.

Did they give you the runaround? Maybe not as supportive as you thought. Another data point to use when deciding what to do next.

Their answers are data points to the level of support and growth you will have in this role. If you have been proactive in your development, asked explicit questions, and gotten advice, you should have better data points to guide you to the right next step.