#32 Perfectly "Unpromotable"? How Being TOO Good at Your Job is Holding You Back

Are you so good at your job that your boss can’t imagine replacing you? While being indispensable might sound like the ultimate career goal, it could actually be the very thing keeping you from moving up. In this episode of Wise Women’s Workplace, we explore how over-specializing, becoming the go-to person, or excelling in your current role can sometimes leave you stuck. Learn how to shift from being "perfectly unpromotable" to a leader your organization can’t wait to elevate.

Episodes referenced: 

#31 - Get What You Want - Advocate for Yourself at Work

#24 - Articulate Your Contributions With Confidence

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Transcript

Hi, and welcome back to Wise Women’s Workplace! I’m your host, Anita Belitz, and today we’re exploring a counterintuitive truth about the workplace—how being too good at your current job might actually be holding you back.

It’s nice to be valued, but praise like “I don’t know what we’d do without you!” may be why you haven’t been considered for a promotion or new opportunity at work.

It may be surprising to hear that, but in this episode, we’ll dive into why being indispensable in your current role can sometimes make you “perfectly unpromotable.” I’ll also share strategies to break out of this cycle so you can position yourself as someone your organization needs to promote, not just keep in the same place.

The Trap of Being Too Good at Your Job 

Let’s start with the core problem: The trap of being too good at your job. You might think that excelling at your current tasks and responsibilities is the fast track to a promotion, but in many cases, it’s the opposite, unfortunately.

Here’s why: When you’re exceptional at what you do—whether it’s organizing events, solving IT issues, or managing client relationships—you become the go-to person for that task or project in many peoples’ eyes. You’re the one everyone turns to when they need that thing done just right or quickly or easily or simply in a way that is easier - and often better - than someone else would do it. And while that might make you feel valued in the moment, in the middle to long term it can also pigeonhole you.

Why? Because your boss sees you as irreplaceable. They rely on you so heavily in your current role that they can’t imagine moving you into something else. It would be so difficult to replace you, to find someone new, train them, and then HOPE that they do it like you. But no one will do it just like you because they aren’t you. And that’s a wild card variable for your manager. And so all of that effort to replace you and to train someone else, can be uncomfortable and dissuasive enough for some managers to keep you right where you are - whether that’s intentional on their part or not. 

You’ve done so well in your current position that you have inadvertently made yourself perfectly unpromotable. Your excellence at performing tasks has boxed you in.

Signs You Might Be Perfectly Unpromotable

Does any of this sound familiar? If what I’m describing hits home for you, and you’ve asked for a promotion and gotten increased compensation and perhaps a better title but not evolving responsibilities, this is a red flag that you should be looking at more closely. 

So if you aren’t sure, here are 4 signs you might be stuck in this “perfectly unpromotable” trap:

• You’re the person everyone turns to for a specific skill or task that no one else knows how to do or no one else is trained to handle.
• Your manager wants you to take care of things that others can do but you are better or more efficient at. 
• Your manager hesitates to delegate higher-level responsibilities to you because they rely too heavily on you for day-to-day operations and if they give you other responsibilities it might slow the day-to-day efficiency down.
• Your boss frequently says things like, “I can’t imagine anyone else handling this as well as you do.” or you’ve been passed over for opportunities because your manager “can’t afford to lose you” in your current role. 

If you’re nodding along, you’ve likely become irreplaceable and are seen as indispensable in your role and others can’t imagine things functioning without you in that role. But don’t worry—you’re not alone, and there is a way out.

The Hidden Cost of Being Too Reliable

Now, if your thinking that being irreplaceable and indispensable are supposed to be good things, there is one more thing that you may have become if you are too reliable: invisible.

Managers often focus on what you’re already doing well, rather than thinking about what else you could do well. And if you’re always the one putting out office fires or taking on the unglamorous-but-necessary tasks because it’s faster for you to do than to explain to someone else how to do it, you might not get the chance to shine in a leadership capacity. And that makes you a bit invisible when your manager is thinking about who to promote.  You are running like a well-oiled machine, humming along, not making a squeak. It’s kind of the idea “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. They aren’t always forced to think about you. Especially if you are counting on them to notice how great you are on their own… They aren’t necessarily being mean or doing it on purpose, but they probably have a lot on their plate and think about your career progression only when they have to.

Another hidden cost? Burnout. Being the “go-to person” can leave you overworked and undervalued, while others—who might not work as hard or perform as well—get noticed for leadership roles simply because they’ve left themselves space to grow. I sometimes joke about the office elves - you know, the ones that stay there late and come in early to get everything done. Not speaking up about how much time things take lets your manager believe you are “super worker” and at some point you are going to be burdened with getting everything done in the time that you have.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s really important to do a great job at work but make sure you pick and choose strategically what you are going to put your energy into. You don’t want to be known so much as a work horse but more of the one to watch as you are going places!   

How to Break the Cycle and Become Promotable

Now, let’s talk solutions. If you feel like you’re perfectly unpromotable because you have become the perfect solution for your boss, here’s how to start shifting from indispensable to promotable:

Step 1: Train Your Replacement

• Start training someone else to handle your key responsibilities. This might feel counterintuitive, but the reality is that if your boss can’t see how the team would function without you, they won’t move you into a different role.
• For example, if you’re the only one who knows how to run a specific system, take the time to train a colleague and document the process. This shows your manager that you’re thinking about the bigger picture. And you can always explain the need for this by explaining that this in case there needs to be an alternate or stand-in. By the way, this is a truly critical issue - if you are the only one who knows how to do what you do and it is a very important task, that is sketchy planning. I once helped a woman who fell from her horse and the thing that she was most concerned about, laying on the ground, was not if she was injured but rather who was going to do the salary run in the morning. This should not be your first thought when you have an accident! Always have an alternate! 
• If you are afraid of “training yourself out of your job” just be sure to provide the foundational structure for the person to do the job. You don’t have to do a total brain dump for them. That is your experience and expertise - they can also build their own experience and expertise and might even come up with different ways of doing things. For this, think about the minimum of what they need to know to do the job and teach them that or document that. If you put literally everything you know about the topic, every contingency plan if something goes wrong or all possible solutions to every scenario, it will cause overwhelm. So be thoughtful and strategic when you train your replacement, especially if you are afraid it could impact your own chances of career progression. 

Step 2: Diversify Your Contributions

• Try to avoid that your identity at work becomes tied to one specific skill or task. Look for ways to contribute in areas outside your current responsibilities. I know this is a challenge because our responsibilities don’t change constantly but keep an eye out for opportunities or, when you are thinking of a project to propose, make sure the solution includes learning a new skill that you can later demonstrate. Again, be strategic in your approach and be deliberate in seeking out opportunities! 
• Volunteer for cross-departmental projects, suggest improvements to existing processes, or offer to take on a leadership role in a team initiative. Even if it feels uncomfortable, it’s important to push yourself to do new things and build your skillset on a regular basis. 

Step 3: Shift From Specialist to Strategist

• This is related to the previous point but looks at it from a different angle. Many people work at the same type of job as they progress through their career and become specialists at what they do. And specialists are essential to a business, but strategists are usually the ones who get promoted the most. Specialists do get promotions and raises, but their career trajectory is often much narrower than someone who is more of a strategist because they are deepening their expertise in one particular area whereas strategists tend to build broader knowledge. Strategists are more focused on observing and analyzing activities and outcomes, planning, helping to guide decisions, and really focus on aligning activities and results with the company's mid-to-long term goals. 
• So start thinking about how your work fits into the larger goals of the organization, and make sure your manager sees that you’re capable of thinking at a higher level. 

Step 4: Say “No” Strategically

• This just makes good sense from all angles. If you’re always the one taking on extra tasks, start saying no—or delegating them to others. This creates space for you to focus on higher-value activities that demonstrate your leadership potential. It also doesn’t send signals that you have extra time to work on things. So if you are already successful at doing something, perhaps use this as an opportunity to delegate to a team member or offer to support someone else who doesn’t yet know how to do it so it can be a mentoring opportunity for you and a chance for someone else to learn a new skill. And if you are in a group setting and someone is pushing you to take it on, you can graciously decline but offer to be available to provide support to the person who takes it on. This “kind decline” is a great way to set boundaries, be strategic in your focus, and not get bogged down in boring tasks that you already know how to do. 

Step 5: Communicate Your Goals

• Your boss isn’t a mind reader. If you want opportunities, you need to let them know. And not only at the end-of-year review! 
• A great way to do this is to schedule a conversation to talk about your career aspirations, and frame it in terms of how your growth aligns with the organization’s goals. If you need help on that, check out episodes 31 - on advocating for yourself at work and 24 on articulating your contributions with confidence. These can help you find the right words and the confidence to talk about your skills and expertise in a way that speaks to your boss. 

So, by making sure that others know how to do the tasks that you don’t need to be doing anymore, by diversifying the projects that you work on, by becoming more of a strategist than a specialist, saying no when it makes sense to do so and carefully communicating your goals to your manager you can set yourself up for a promotion. Just be deliberate about what you are doing.

Summary of Learning Points

So, let’s quickly recap what we talked about in today’s episode:

• Being “too good” at your job can make you indispensable—but it can also make you invisible if you aren’t careful because your boss won’t be actively seeking a new position for you as you are perfect where you are.
• Signs you might be “perfectly unpromotable” include being overly relied upon for specific tasks, the only one who has specific competencies, and are not generally being considered for leadership roles.
• To break the cycle, focus on building your replacement, diversifying your contributions, shifting from a specialist mindset to a strategist mindset, and strategically communicating your goals.

Remember, promotion isn’t just about doing your job well—it’s about showing you’re ready for the next level.

Outro

I hope today’s episode has helped you see that being indispensable isn’t the same as being promotable. The key is to think strategically about your role, your contributions, and your future.

This week, I challenge you to identify one area where you can start shifting from indispensable to promotable. Maybe it’s training a colleague, volunteering for a new project, or scheduling that long-overdue conversation with your boss.

And if you haven’t yet signed up to the Wise Women’s Workplace newsletter make sure to do so if you want to receive updates, more learning opportunities, and freebies that are only available to the Workplace Wisdom Community! You can go to www.wisewomensworkplace.com  and sign up there and you can find the link in the show notes. I would love to have you join there! Or, connect with me on LinkedIn, if you prefer.  

As always, if you want a career and life that makes you happy, be mindful of what you’re doing and take deliberate actions every day. Don’t just survive—take steps to thrive! Until next time, may you be healthy, wealthy, and wise!