[Note: Corrected broken link to Seth Godin's blog 6-April-2011]
I was just reading a post on Seth's blog about resisting the urge to conform to other people's expectations for you.
He talks about a chef who resists the pressure to open other restaurants, get a TV show, and that sort of thing - in favor of sticking with one, popular restaurant location.
This reminds me of some of the conversations I've had with people during career planning sessions. How many times to we, as managers, try to push people to do more, get promoted, take on a lot more responsibility, etc? And how many times is that the right thing to do?
In many cases, it's probably the best thing for the person and the company, but it is worth asking if it's OK for that person to stay in their current role and only stretch within that role. For some people, staying put will be better than pushing them to the next level where they may not be well-suited for the job.
What do you think? Have you been promoted beyond where you should've been? Have you ever pushed an employee to do something more grand and regretted it?
I'd love to hear your perspectives.