Today's high performers are all but losing their career mobility due to a few highly unexpected factors.  I know it's hard to believe a high performer could hit a 'mobility roadblock,' but they seem to be doing it more often.  It almost becomes an easily identifiable evolutionary process.  Here's how it goes: 

They graduate from college.  With intense motivation and their degree in hand, they enter the workforce.  They get a fairly good starting pay.  Maybe not all they want but they can make that up later.  On the job, they begin to learn all they can.  They make themselves the local expert that everyone needs.  They tackle big issues and seek out big responsibility.  Their great accomplishments usher in the birth of that next big pay increase or promotion (so they think).  Well, they may not get the money, but they do get a little peer recognition.  This will fuel their drive to be successful further down the road.  

Without sufficient management recognition for their efforts, they begin to question whether or not they have the right skills to move up in management.  So, they go out and get those skills.  Maybe they get an advanced degree, like a MBA, or some other certifications.  This should definitely create a buffett of opportunity to be spread before them.  They now have an advanced degree, have worked long hours, and accomplished great things.  This will surely set them center stage.  Awards, recognition and praise will fall like rain upon them.  Yet, the next performance appraisal identifies none of these great things.

They've accomplished everything other people said were important to move up in the organization.  For that matter, they have the credentials to move up in ANY company.  So, they move to another one in hopes of doing just that.  They are smarter now so the game will be much different this time.  They breeze through the interview and get everything they ask for.  Just a few months after starting the new job, the company changes.  Maybe it's a reorg, buyout, layoff....who knows.  The great opportunities have now diminished.  So, now they sit with a bigger job title, a good college education, experience and a great set of skills but....they are back in the same situation as before.  No amount of hard work, demonstration of excellence and mastery of skills, or quantity of degrees can seem to move this stationary object....that is, their career.  Why, oh why, is it so difficult to fly?  Why do we strap the plow to a race horse?

The prognosis is simple.  Management isn't really watching.  Mintzberg has shown us that management has a tendency to focus on their own careers, not yours.  Great accomplishments aren't rewarded because nobody knows about them.  You can't solve difficult problems if no one knows you have the ability to.  Managing your career has more to do with managing how others see (and making sure they really see you).  The best way to do that is to use the "Blitz Approach."  It's an innovative team based approach to getting where you want to be.  It's a form of global, subliminal marketing.  Your team manages your career and you manage theirs.  Too often we try to compete on an individual scale.  It's much better to increase your odds of winning by using your TEAM to compete against the other individuals.  By using the efforts of your team, you can easily identify and overcome the obstacles you would normally face alone.  Creating strategy, defining achievable goals, building new skills, and getting rid of old habits no longer become difficult.

Stop the madness.  Quit trying to the same things while expecting different results. They  won't see it.  Build your team and paint a picture of yourself that everyone will see and love.  Build a Blitz Team and achieve the success you desire.  It's a different game now and you have to play it differently.