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Before you chase your next promotion, there’s a potentially uncomfortable question worth asking: Do you actually want the job, or do you want what getting it says about you?
Jason Murray, president and managing partner of executive recruitment firm BES Executive Search Inc., says aspiring leaders should conduct what he calls an “ego audit” before moving up the corporate ladder.
“If you removed the title, if the salary increase wasn’t there, if the visibility and status was taken away, would you still want the actual work?” asks Mr. Murray.
They’re simple questions, but can expose the difference between wanting to lead and wanting the recognition that can come with leadership.
Mr. Murray says people can become so focused on titles and status that they enter leadership positions without fully considering what those jobs require. And the actual work isn’t always glamorous.
“They don’t want to go layers deeper and do the real and actual work,” Mr. Murray says.
He says leadership can mean having difficult conversations, taking responsibility for other people’s development and making decisions that won’t make everyone happy. It can also mean advocating for employees when they aren’t in the room, absorbing pressure rather than passing it down and taking accountability when something goes wrong.
So, how can you tell the difference between being ambitious and letting your ego take the lead?
Mr. Murray says there is an important distinction between healthy ambition and status-seeking, and workers can test their own motivations by paying attention to the questions they’re asking themselves.
“Healthy ambition will ask the question, what am I capable of contributing at the next level? Whereas something that’s more like status seeking might be more along the lines of, what will reaching the next level say about me?”
In other words, one focuses on what the new role asks of you. The other focuses on what it gives you.
There’s another gut-check Mr. Murray recommends before saying yes. Ask yourself if the job would still be attractive if it meant doing less of the work you’re currently good at or genuinely enjoy.
A strong individual contributor, for example, may get promoted because they excel at their work, only to discover that leadership pulls them away from the tasks that made them enjoy their jobs.
Realizing that you don’t want a specific role or don’t want to become a leader doesn’t mean you lack drive.
“Not wanting to manage other people and being in leadership roles isn’t always something that we should be looking at as a sign of lacking ambition,” Mr. Murray says. “To me, it actually signals evidence of self awareness more than anything.”
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