A Framework for Advancing Your Career When It’s Stalling

Most stalled careers don’t look broken... they actually look busy.

Author

Glenda Carnate
February 02, 2026

Read time: 2.5 minutes

You're putting in the hours of work... meetings, deliverables & responsibilities keep stacking on your plate; however, nothing's actually changing as a result of your hard work.

Same scope of work, same visibility, same outcome.

Slowly but surely, you begin to feel the frustration building and you push yourself harder by extending your workday and taking on more commitments... still, nothing seems to indicate danger. That's because career stalls tend to result not from your level of effort. Instead, they tend to be a function of your position within the organization.

Here is the Framework to Fix Your Career:

T = Tension

Your career feels busy and stagnant:
Same responsibilities, same visibility, same results.
Specific career move: List where you want to gain momentum (scope, title, salary or influence.) If you can’t specify it, others won’t be able to see it.

R = Reframe

Being stalled means your value isn’t apparent to the people you need to show it to... it does not mean you don’t have value.
Specific career Move: Rewrite your role in 1 sentence with benefit focus, not the task (i.e. - “I mitigate X risk” or “I drive Y outcome”)

U = Utility

Advancing your career is based more on solving a higher-level issue than simply completing MORE tasks.
Specific career move: Identify a problem that your boss is concerned about that has not yet been assigned (by them) and take ownership of resolving it.

T = Transfer

If people cannot articulate the value of your work, they cannot be your advocate.
Specific career move: Develop a three-bullet value point biography you can use to communicate your value in meetings, during reviews, and on your LinkedIn.

H = Human Proof

Your career continues to progress based on how much trust you have in others not on how perfectly developed your work is.
Specific career move: Share your progress before you complete it and make it available via an update or demo, etc. Visibility will build your leader’s confidence faster than perfecting your work.

💡Key Takeaway: 

The answer for getting your career moving again is TRUTH... greater clarity about your situation (positioning you) and having the courage to be visible.

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