Have you fallen for this success trap?

Sometimes the strategies, actions, and/or approach that made you successful before stops working. You can’t tighten a screw with a hammer – you have to change the tool you are using.

If you over-rely on the same management approach, same communication style, or the same career plan that got you this far, you may not get any further. Here are some scenarios where your success strategy may have topped out.

Your new role is too different to rely on what you did before

This happens a lot on the career path to leadership. What works for a star individual contributor is different from a good manager and is different still from a good leader.

• When you are an individual contributor, you have just yourself to motivate, organize, and ensure you get the job done.
• When you manage, you have others to coach, train, and corral. You have a budget and deadlines. You have colleagues, vendors or consultants to convince.
• When you lead, you have followers to engage. You have a vision and strategy to communicate.

The circumstances surrounding each role are different, which require skills you might never have used before.

Your circle of responsibility has expanded to where you need to flex your communication style

As you advance in your career, you work with more people – constituents as an individual contributor whose scope expands, more staff as a manager whose responsibilities increase, more people at all levels and functions as a leader whose scope has broadened.

You need a broader array of communication skills to interact with the wider variety of people. You might be a very direct, decisive manager whose small team responded positively. Now you have a bigger team, and some need a more nurturing, encouraging approach. While you can wait until they “get” you, if they ever do, you can also adapt to meet them where they are in their development.

Your past success strategy may be irrelevant to your new circumstances

I’ve heard several successful executives comment on how success in their workplace required a completely different approach than success in school. As a former corporate executive myself, I agree.

As a student, you have a clearly defined schedule, curriculum and challenges (whether tests or research reports). There is no comparison to the frenetic, unpredictable nature of running a line of business or a region. Many executives are formerly successful students, and had to discard some of the now irrelevant tricks of the school trade.

What do you need to discard? This doesn’t mean you have to become a whole new person or never refer back to past successes, but check your assumptions about what works.

What exactly does career advancement mean to you?

Getting to the next level isn’t a specific enough goal because “next” means different things to different people.

Do you want more money?

You may want to ask for a raise, rather than a promotion – it’s not the same thing. Or you might start a side hustle.

Do you want more recognition?

A promotion is one way to be recognized. However, so is getting more involved in other areas of your company where you’re visible to more people. Employee Resource Groups are a good way to get in front of senior people.

Do you want to challenge or grow your skills?

You can develop your skills outside your job. I’ve been an adjunct at Columbia University for 20+ years, and in addition to cementing my understanding of my area of expertise, I have expanded my communication, presenting, and teaching skills. Yet this is completely separate from advancing my business.

Do you want more fulfillment?

You may think you will be fulfilled with a promotion, but changes in other areas of your life could give you more fulfillment. Experiment with changing your free time, your relationships, your environment, or other areas before assuming advancing your career is the answer.

Are you performing well enough in your current role to advance beyond it?

Your annual performance review can give you a sense of how your boss and your company feel about the work you are doing. It is also important for you to do a self-assessment on how you are doing. Here are some questions to help you check in:

What was my biggest accomplishment?

If you decide to make a job change, you’ll need to understand this, as most job interviews include questions about your biggest accomplishment. You want to have something recent to say, ideally as recently as this year.

What result did you achieve? What expertise did you gain? What area of the company did you improve? Remember not only those things you directly impacted but also where you contributed to a big accomplishment – for your department or an organization you support.

Write down all of your wins, but select what you felt was the most significant. What makes it significant? This gives you a window into what you’re proud of, what you prioritize, what you’re passionate about.

Whom did I help?

You don’t advance your career by yourself. Someone (likely several people) promotes you. Since, the strongest networks are built on give and take, what have you given back to your network recently?

It might have been pitching in for a colleague who is overwhelmed, offering encouragement or sharing advice. As you reflect on all the ways you helped people in your network, you might see that:

• your focus was only with people you know well, instead of expanding your allies to people you may not see day-to-day;
• your helpful gestures were with your immediate team instead of across all areas of the company.
• your relationships revolve around people at one level –only junior or senior or peers – instead of a diverse network.
• you lose touch with people you haven’t worked with recently and need to stay connect over time.

Who was my biggest champion?

Collaboration and relationships are critical to career advancement. It’s important to recognize who is helpful, and what makes them helpful, so you can thank people. You also want to nurture these relationships.

Don’t just focus on big or obvious gestures, like when your manager gives you a plum assignment or a client praises your work. Remember the colleague who helps you out when you’re overwhelmed, the informal mentor who listens and encourages, the savvy junior assistant who’s great for finding that tricky piece of information or getting you a slot on an executive’s busy calendar.

Many of your supporters help you in an ongoing way. What makes someone your biggest champion for this year? This speaks to what you really needed and who really stepped up.

What is coming up that most excites me?

This question is one that is very important to help determine if you are on the right path to advancement, or not. If this question brings up a lot of different commitments, pull out your schedule and plan for when you will pay attention to each of these. On the other hand, if you have trouble thinking about anything that excites you, now is the time to explore if a job change is needed.

Reviewing your past year can provide insight into areas to focus on. Reading business stories and biographies can plant ideas for problems to solve – maybe some are relevant to your company and can be worked into your day-to-day, or they can increase your enthusiasm for your next career move.

It could also be that the most exciting thing coming up is personal in nature – a milestone in your family, a hobby you’re taking up. It’s important to acknowledge this and give space in your schedule for this, as you plan your upcoming professional commitments. If more work/life balance is required, advancing your career may not be the right goal to focus on at all.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine helps experienced professionals in tech, media, financial services and other industries find work they love and earn more doing it. This post is an excerpt from Why Careers Stall And How To Advance Your Career. Visit the Dream Career Club to learn more.