The Fastest Way Leaders Kill Careers — And How to Fix It
It sounds harsh, but it’s true: one of the biggest threats to someone’s career isn’t lack of skill. It’s when a leader stops being curious—when they believe they already know everything about the person on their team.
Once that happens, opportunities shrink, growth flattens, and the relationship erodes. And that’s not just bad for the employee—it’s bad for the leader, the team, and the organization.
The Real Role Leaders Play in Career Expansion
Leadership isn’t neutral. How leaders see their people, relate to them, and give them space makes a measurable difference in whether careers grow or stall:
Lack of Career Advice Hurts Growth
In a survey by MIT Sloan of over 1,000 employees, 49% said the absence of good career advice from their manager had already hurt their job trajectory.Managers Hoard Talent
Research on internal mobility shows nearly 75% of managers engage in “talent hoarding”—keeping strong employees from pursuing new roles because they don’t want to lose them.Visibility Drives Progression
Employees who see clear pathways for advancement inside their organization are far more likely to pursue them—and far less likely to leave. But too often, those pathways are blocked by leaders who aren’t curious enough to help surface them.
The thread is clear: leaders have direct, documented influence on whether careers move forward—or stall.
Why AI & Schedule Margin Matter
One of the most overlooked enablers of career growth is time. Leaders are so overloaded with meetings, reports, and administrative work that they leave no margin for career conversations.
This is where AI and better design of work can help:
Automating low-leverage tasks (reports, scheduling, reminders).
Freeing blocks of time for coaching and mentoring.
Creating space for leaders to ask deeper questions instead of just managing outputs.
Margin isn’t wasted time—it’s the soil where curiosity and growth conversations take root.
The GENUINE™ Path Forward
At ARCH Impacts, we use the GENUINE™ Framework to help leaders re-anchor in what truly builds growth: authentic relationships, intentional engagement, and curiosity that never stops.
When leaders practice GENUINE™, here’s what it looks like in action:
| GENUINE™ Principle | Leadership Action | What It Looks Like in Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Generous | Invest Time Intentionally | Use AI and better scheduling to create margin for people. Protect time for coaching and development. |
| Engaged | Engage in Career Conversations | Use 1:1s for aspirations and development, not just performance updates. Stay genuinely interested in where someone wants to grow. |
| Nice | Encourage Feedback Loops | Make feedback reciprocal, safe, and forward-looking. Help uncover hidden strengths, not just weaknesses. |
| Unafraid | Create Stretch Opportunities | Give employees the chance to try new things and grow—even if it means some safe failures along the way. |
| Integrity | Make Pathways Visible | Show employees the roles, projects, or cross-team moves available to them inside the org. Help map the “next step.” |
| Non-Judgmental | Adopt a Growth Mindset | Believe there’s always more to discover in each person. Resist reducing people to labels like “quiet” or “not leadership material.” |
| Empathetic | Listen Deeply & Support Holistically | Ask about motivations, pressures, or aspirations outside the immediate task. Recognize the human behind the role. |
Bottom Line
The fastest way to kill someone’s career is to stop being curious about them.
The fastest way to grow someone’s career is to stay GENUINE™—to keep asking, keep investing, keep developing.
Leaders don’t need to have all the answers about their people.
They just need the humility—and the margin—to keep learning.
👉 Who on your team deserves a fresh look at what they could become?