What your team really wants (hint: it’s not always a promotion)

A leader recently told me about her dilemma: Her top performer of four years was asking about advancement opportunities, but with frozen budgets and no open positions, she felt powerless to help. Sound familiar?

This scenario plays out everywhere. High performers hit their stride, ask “What’s next?” and managers default to the same answer: promotion. When that’s not possible, both sides feel stuck.

But here’s what most leaders miss: When employees ask about advancement, they’re often asking for something deeper—to be seen, valued, and recognized for their contributions.

For decades, organizations have made promotion the primary symbol of professional success. It’s become our go-to way of saying “your work matters.” But this creates problems when budgets freeze: managers feel powerless, and employees feel invisible.

The solution isn’t finding more money for promotions. It’s separating recognition from title changes.

The S Curve of Growth Framework

Instead of thinking about career development as a ladder (up or nothing), I encourage leaders to think about it as a learning curve—specifically, what I call the S Curve of Growth. Every skill, project, or responsibility follows this predictable S-shaped pattern:

Launch Point: You’re at the base of the S, where learning feels slow but you’re building crucial foundations.

Sweet Spot: The steep middle of the S, where you gain confidence and competence. Progress feels exponential.

Mastery: The top plateau of the S, where you’ve reached high performance but growth levels off.

The S Curve of Growth gives you and your employees a shared language for career conversations. Instead of “I need a promotion,” the conversation becomes “I’m reaching mastery on my project management S Curve—what new curve should I start climbing?”

Making This Work in Practice

The most effective leaders using this approach:

Make development ongoing, not annual. Replace yearly reviews with regular check-ins. Ask employees where they see themselves on different learning curves and what support they need to progress.

Let employees drive their growth. Using the S Curve framework, stop dictating development paths. Ask: “Which of your S Curves do you want to accelerate? What new curve interests you?” Then create opportunities around their answers.

Recognize progress publicly. Acknowledge when someone moves from struggling with a new system to training others on it. Call out when they take on a challenging project. Make their growth visible.

The Bottom Line

Growth doesn’t require promotions. A software developer can master new programming languages, mentor junior colleagues, or lead cross-functional projects—all without a title change. A marketing manager can expand into data analytics, build vendor relationships, or develop content strategy expertise.

When you help employees map their growth across multiple S Curves, you solve two problems: they feel recognized and engaged, and you build a more versatile, capable team. Everyone wins, even when the org chart stays frozen.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to promote everyone. It’s whether you can afford to not help them grow.