27/04/2026
A former client said to me "I wish someone had told me earlier that my manager was not responsible for my career. I was."
Not because managers are bad. Some of mine were exceptional.
But a manager has their own targets, their own pressures, their own career to navigate. The idea that they are sitting somewhere quietly strategising about your development and your next move is, for most people, a comfortable fiction.
For me, during my corporate career, the moment I truly understood this was the moment someone tried to take credit for my work.
I had delivered.
The results were there.
And I watched someone else position themselves as the architect of something I had built.
My first instinct was frustration (trust me, I'm being polite).
My second instinct, which served me considerably better, was to get strategic.
I started tracking my outcomes.
Documenting what I delivered, what it impacted, what it was worth to the business.
I started sharing that evidence deliberately, with the right people, in the right rooms, at the right moments.
Not broadcasting.
Not performing.
Just making sure that the people who needed to know my value actually knew it.
That shift changed everything. My visibility increased. My credibility grew. The network I built from that position of clarity led to sponsor relationships that opened doors no amount of hoping and hoping had ever come close to opening.
Career ownership is not about being aggressive or self-promoting in ways that feel uncomfortable, and to be honest, even if it feels uncomfortable, stick with it.
It's about understanding that nobody has more invested in your career than you do, and acting accordingly.
If you want a practical framework for doing that, the A.C.E It Career Confidence Workbook is where I'd start.
Go to my bio to download
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