As with any craft, it’s healthy and expected to consider from time to time how good you actually are in your role. I vividly remember the first couple of times when I received such feedback. Two people who were my seniors told me I was doing great or better than expected, and the moments are forever etched in my brain. That’s how critical that is. Contrast that with colleagues who I know that never got direct feedback and thought they were doing fine but weren’t.

Leadership positions can be even harder to gauge, given that the output is ‘softer’ and you have fewer data points to compare yourself to. After all, companies have way more individual contributors than managers, let alone executives. Thus, what are you to do? How can you ensure you’re not getting stuck and settling for low expectations?

How We Get Trapped

Realizing that you’ve been stuck in a local maxima is never pleasant. Sometimes, you find out as you’re trying to get a new job and find it significantly more challenging than you had expected. Other times, the rude awakening results from a change in your company, like a new boss. All of a sudden, a few years have gone by, and you’ve grown too comfortable.

I’ve seen this happen when the surrounding environment isn’t pushing for excellence and continuous improvement when you’re overwhelmed with day-to-day issues, and when you are just mistaken to think you are doing better than you objectively are. Here are a few things to consider and assess whether you might be stuck and not realizing it:

• Your superiors and peers are satisfied, but you’re not sure whether they are top performers themselves.
• You have been in the same place for years, where everyone slowly grows accustomed to a certain level of performance from others.
• You cannot recall the last time someone gave you frank and candid feedback that wasn’t nice to hear, but necessary.
• You haven’t done anything that’s outside your comfort zone in a while.
• Your yearly reviews seem to repeat the same goals or improvements year after year.
  

To Improvement and Beyond

Stated as plainly as possible, local maxima is local. It is a lot easier to assess your situation if you get access to more data points, thus escaping locality bias. That doesn’t mean that you need to change jobs every year, but that stasis is bad. For example, I’ve seen several times ‘serial teams’—people who have been working together repeatedly across several companies during a decade or two. While this comes with incredible benefits, it also has a risk that’s a bit like inbreeding—we don’t get enough variance into the system and thus very easily lose the advantages evolution has to offer.

Don’t always promote people internally, but also hire senior people from time to time. Find communities you can join to witness what others are doing and talking about. Work with a coach who has seen enough people in similar conditions to provide a better assessment.

If you want to make sure you will be doing better, consider the following:

• Set improvement goals that require a conscious effort on your part and would remark a considerable improvement a year from today.
• Regularly speak with colleagues from across the industry and attend events.
• Encourage your team to speak up and be candid. Feedback can be priceless.