More Answers... (10/19/25 Newsletter): Career Growth is about GROWTH
Hi Everyone,
Here's your Sunday Evening "More Answers..." to help you head into the work week-- remember, you can see previous newsletters at https://www.askchrista.com/blog/, and all topics are related to the many advising and messaging exchanges I've had each week!
Tonight’s topic? Career growth is GROWTH.
Not All Growth is Upward (or a straight line...)
Career growth is often painted as a ladder: linear, upward, and predictable. But in truth, it’s more like how plants grow: where the energy source is (mostly upward, but sometimes sideways, down and trailing, up and over...).
Every meaningful career leap builds on something deeper than a title or a raise. It’s grounded in growth, which requires (guess what?) a growth mindset with strategic patience and humble learning. Think of that as a trifecta that transforms you away from the fast sprint toward a lifelong rhythm of becoming, evolving, and... growing.
Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck (2006) calls this the growth mindset: the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and effort. Those with a growth mindset see challenges as part of the process, not proof of inadequacy.
When you treat your career as a long game of learning, the setbacks, detours, and unpredicted changes become powerful data points.
Strategic Patience: An Overlooked Skill
Fast growth is tempting, and occasionally the right pace, especially early in your career, but most career progress is slower than fast because it's iterative. It's a process. In fact, the best leaders grow in arcs, not leaps, and they exercises patience and understood the value of a moderated pace.
Now, to be clear: patience doesn’t mean waiting or holding out unnecessarily when you've already exercised fair patience. It means working with intention.
Let's call it "strategic patience," a type of patience that helps you decide when to push forward and when to step sideways to gain the experience your future self will need (Duckworth, 2016).
Ask yourself:
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Does this next step expand my skills, visibility, or network?
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Am I learning something I’ll use later?
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Or am I languishing? Repeating tasks that no longer stretch me?
Knowing the difference between learning and languishing is one of the most important discernments of a thriving career. Needing patience to GROW your skills and BUILD your career is not the same as languishing; and languishing (or stalling out and feeling a deterioration along the way) is not from having patience... although when you have a patient nature, you may actually be languishing, so again: know the difference.
Learning or Languishing? (when growth feels slow)
If it feels like your career momentum is starting to stall, it’s worth pausing before assuming failure. Growth often continues under the surface, in reflection, maturity, or recalibration.
Sometimes what looks like stagnation is actually consolidation: your skills are deepening and aligning with new opportunities that haven't come to you yet.
But if it truly feels like languishing (Grant, 2021), that’s your nudge to re-engage: seek a stretch assignment, a mentor, a sponsor to move you to the next level, or lateral move that reignites your learning.
Real growth feels challenging, not crushing. Energizing, not exhausting. Curious, not complacent.
BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK!!!
(and the power of "Not Yet...")
This week's media is another video from Carol Dweck (yes-- her again hah hah!! Another shero!). If you've hear the terms "growth mindset" and "fixed mindset," it's because of Dr. Dweck's and her fellow researcher's work. I mention this in the recent Ask Christa! Episode 49, which kicks off Season 5 and answers the question "How should I be thinking about Career Growth?"
Same as in this week's newsletter: think about career growth as GROWTH. If you are thinking about it as a reward or as recognition, then it will likely take you from job to job-- and that's OK, but that's not big enough thinking to be at the "career" level of thinking.
The Power of Believing You Can Improve, by Carol Dweck, PhD
Enjoy!
And remember, if you have a business challenge or workplace issue... Ask Christa!
REFERENCES
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner.
Grant, A. (2021, April 19). There’s a name for the blah you’re feeling: It’s called languishing. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html
NOTE: Below is a list of books referenced above. You can ask your local library to borrow them from their network or if you care to purchase, please consider Bookshop.org:
For Dweck's Mindset: The new psychology of success: https://bookshop.org/p/books/mindset-the-new-psychology-of-s...
For Duckworth's Grit: The power of passion and perseverance: https://bookshop.org/p/books/grit-the-power-of-passion-and-p...
