What is it that makes the word ambition such a difficult word for many?

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A while back I had just started working with a senior client in a major financial institution, and listening to her and hearing all about what she wanted to do, etc., I said:

“You sound really ambitious.”

Well…

You would have thought that I had insulted her!

“I’m NOT ambitious! I really don’t like that word! It’s not who I am!”

I obviously apologised and then asked her how she would describe herself:

“I’m driven. I want to make a difference. I want the people in my team to succeed, both individually and as a team”

Now to me that’s ambitious… What do you think?

There are several reasons why people dislike the word ambitious, that I’ve found speaking to my clients (both men and women too!)

1. They’ve witnessed toxic behaviours in others such as being over competitive, chasing success at all cost, being abrupt and abrasive in meetings and conversations, and the excuse has been “I’m just ambitious”
2. They’ve witnessed breakdowns and burnout in people who have openly said “I’m just ambitious”
3. They’ve seen others be judged because they’ve shared their views and personal ambitions and don’t want to be judged for it either.

What other reasons do you have?

And yet, organisations want to employ people with ambition - ambition to succeed, to become the best leaders, to fill succession plans, to make a difference, to innovate and take the company further.

They want to hear you talk about your plans and how you want to do more and be more…

Today I was speaking to another client, whose organisation is going through major changes over the next year. She was told by a very senior leader in the organisation, that her department would no longer exist in 12 months or so. She knew this, but hearing it from this person made it real. She was worried about what next. When I asked her what she wanted to do, she said she wanted to go speak to another very senior leader who she believes may have more of an idea of what roles will be available but she was worried that was too bold…

TOO BOLD?!?!?!

Why on earth would that be too bold!

Because she fears being seen as overly competitive, brash, too direct and so on…

Remember, an organisation (particularly a large one) struggles to really see who wants to do what. If people don’t step up and communicate their aspirations and ambitions, those recruiting can assume that there is no one internally who wants the role, and then they will go external. This means that you lose and so does the organisation.

Maybe we need another word, but what if we could assume positive things instead, when we speak about ambition?

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✨ About Sonia Gavira ✨

Sonia Gavira MBA, PCC is a leadership and executive coach, consultant and Certified Practitioner in Brain and Behaviour Change and Master Practitioner in NLP. Coming from a strong commercial background in marketing to Marketing Director level. Sonia has spent more than 20 years working with Executives, Directors and Managers in organisations helping them lead themselves, their teams and their organisations successfully.

Today Sonia’s interest lies in helping leaders embrace a new style of leadership that allows people to be themselves and embrace compassion, care and kindness as well as strength, power and decisiveness - polarities that too often drive leaders one way or the other. This has lead her to be involved in a number of programmes helping women ask for and progress to senior roles within organisations, and do so in a way that balances all aspects of their life.Sonia is also an expert in motivation, enabling individuals, teams and organisations to tap into what will drive them to peak performance.

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