The Cost Nobody Puts on the Org Chart

Date

07.23.26

The gap grows between what the company says they value and how decisions actually get made. As effort and loyalty go unrewarded, performance of the “right kind” gets promoted instead.

The gap between what a company values and how it decides

As effort and loyalty go unrewarded, performance of the “right kind” gets promoted instead.

In my coaching practice, I sit across a lot of talented people who are quietly exhausted. Not from the work itself, but from everything around it.

They watch a colleague get the promotion that should be theirs, simply by managing up better. They stop speaking up in meetings to avoid sounding disagreeable. They feel alone, not knowing who’s in their corner and eventually stop trying to find out.

These stories sound different on the surface… Underneath, they’re the same story: talented people slowly disappearing into versions of themselves shaped by an environment they didn’t choose.

The gap grows between what the company says they value and how decisions actually get made. As effort and loyalty go unrewarded, performance of the “right kind” gets promoted instead.

Most people don’t name this as “corporate politics.” They just feel tired. Unseen. A little smaller than they used to be. And they assume that’s just what work is.

It isn’t. Naming the pattern is only the first step. Recognizing it doesn’t automatically give you a way through it.

Next month, I’ll share the north star I use with clients to navigate all of this without losing themselves in the process – a one question that cuts through almost every corporate political dilemma above.

If any of this sounded familiar, you’ll want to be here for next month’s newsletter.

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