Plateaued managers

A plateau in career terms is about limits to career mobility in the sense that upward hierarchical movement is restricted. In other words, plateaued managers are people, who have hit a real or assumed career ceiling. Typically, the coachee or mentee may have been in the same job role for at least five years and may have been passed over for promotion on several occasions. For the coach or mentor, working with a plateaued manager can be challenging, but also potentially highly rewarding.

Some initial questions the coach/ mentor can use to explore the plateaued manager’s situation include:

• Where is the source of the plateau – Is it the role or the individual?

(Some roles have a history of extended tenure – i.e. the previous incumbents will also have been there for longer than average in the organisation. Changing the situation for this manager may be as much a matter of changing perception about the role as it is about changing their performance or behaviour.)

• How does the coachee or mentee feel about their situation (being plateaued)?

If they are resentful, how is that resentment being channelled? Would other emotions be more helpful in re-starting their career progress? Do they want to move on, or are they content to remain in their current role – perhaps because it allows them to focus their energies on other, more valued areas of their lives? If the latter, what is the minimum rate of learning and development they need to acquire to remain effective in the current role?

• Who and where is control over the coaches or mentees career progression?

Effective plateaued managers have an internal locus of control (i.e. they believe they are responsible for what happens to them); ineffective plateaued managers have an external locus of control (i.e. they see their situation as dependent on other people). For those with an inner locus of control, the coach or mentor may simply need to help them see opportunities for advancement and plan how to seize them. For mangers with an external locus of control, the task is much more difficult – they need to accept responsibility for their situation and may need much more help in gaining motivation for personal change.

Once the coachee or mentee understand the situation, the coach/mentor can select an appropriate form of help. There are a number of options available. One option is to seek opportunities to expand the coaches or mentees external network, to connect with individuals at the higher hierarchical levels. This can enable the exploration of different routes to career progression. Another option is to encourage the plateaued manager to become a mentor to someone else. Anecdotal evidence indicates that effective plateaued managers, who become mentors, often experience a surge in their own career progress, as they apply to themselves the guidance they give to their mentee!

© David Clutterbuck, 2014

Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
Woodlands, Tollgate,
Maidenhead,
Berks, UK. SL6 4LJ

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