↓ Skip to main content
Expert LinkedIn
Professional Development Paths & People

The Step Sideways: Why More High Performers Are Choosing Influence Over Authority

5 min read
Olivia Bennett
Olivia Bennett Leadership Development Expert & Work-Life Balance Advocate

Jessica Kim did not stop being ambitious.

She just stopped performing ambition in the old way.

In Fortune’s reporting on what it called the “quiet ambition” era, Kim described moving away from the endless “up and to the right” career script toward a model centered on meaning, caregiving, and sustainable output (Fortune, April 16, 2023). For many professionals, that shift is now showing up in a specific career decision: declining people-management tracks, or stepping out of them, in order to stay close to high-value individual work.

A professional corridor that splits into two paths: one climbs toward crowded glass offices and title placards, while the other stays level and bright toward a focused workshop where one person is building with calm precision
For many high performers, career progress is becoming less about climbing and more about choosing the lane where they can sustain real impact.

The numbers suggest this is not a fringe preference.

Visier’s 2023 survey of 1,000 U.S. full-time individual contributors found that only 38% wanted to become people managers at their current organization, while 62% preferred to remain individual contributors (Visier, August 2023). Among women in the survey, interest was even lower at 32%. The top deterrents were not laziness or low aspiration. They were increased stress (40%), longer hours (39%), and the sense that current work already fits (37%).

That pattern is becoming expensive for companies that still run on a single-ladder definition of success.

A Kellogg School and Visier analysis highlighted in HR Executive reported that individual contributors earn 33% less on average than people managers, are 32% less likely to be promoted, and face pay-growth rates about 20% lower over time (HR Executive, October 4, 2024). If management is the only route to recognition, organizations accidentally create two risks at once: reluctant managers in critical seats, and disengaged specialists who see no credible future without taking a role they do not want.

The Role People Are Avoiding Is Also Under Strain
#

To understand why high performers are opting out, you have to look at what the manager role has become.

Gallup’s “Manager Squeeze” work found managers are now more likely than non-managers to be burned out, disengaged, job-searching, and doubtful that their organizations care about their wellbeing (Gallup, October 5, 2023). In Gallup’s data, 64% of managers reported employees being given additional responsibilities, 51% cited team restructures, and 42% cited budget cuts.

In plain language: many manager roles now combine higher accountability with lower control.

Gallup’s five-year workplace review reinforced the same theme, describing how post-pandemic operating models have intensified pressure on the “bridge layer” between executives and teams (Gallup, April 14, 2025). Managers are expected to absorb disruption, translate strategy, hold culture, and protect performance, often while working through unclear expectations and thinner support systems.

Professionals are watching this up close. Many are making a rational choice.

The Leadership Story Is Changing
#

One of the most useful corrections in today’s career conversation is this: stepping away from formal authority is not stepping away from leadership.

Leadership is still being practiced by people who design systems, mentor peers, solve hard technical problems, and stabilize execution under uncertainty. They just may not have direct reports.

Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial survey suggests this reframing is structural, not generational mood. Only 6% of respondents said a leadership position is their primary career goal, and just 25% of Gen Z and 21% of millennials said they prefer rapid-promotion career progression (Deloitte, 2025). Most preferred gradual growth or lateral moves that build long-term fit.

That does not sound like disengagement. It sounds like a portfolio mindset: build capability, protect wellbeing, increase optionality, and define contribution more precisely than title inflation allows.

What This Looks Like in Real Careers
#

In my work with senior professionals, I increasingly see the same pattern.

A high-performing product lead declines a manager opening and instead takes ownership of the company’s most fragile cross-functional launch process. A senior marketer steps out of line management, then becomes the person every region depends on to turn strategy into execution speed. A technical specialist stays on an expert track, mentors new managers informally, and becomes the cultural anchor during periods of turnover.

From the outside, these moves can look like pauses. Inside the business, they often become force multipliers.

The organizations that benefit most from this trend are the ones that stop forcing a false binary between “leader” and “individual contributor.” They build dual prestige pathways, calibrate compensation to impact rather than headcount, and train managers to support ambitions that do not end in people management.

That last part matters. If managers are evaluated only by how quickly they produce new managers, they will push talented people into roles that burn them out and weaken teams. If managers are evaluated by whether people around them grow into the right shape of contribution, career decisions become more honest—and performance usually gets better.

The Better Question for 2026
#

For years, the default career question was: “What is your next title?”

A better question now is: “Where do you create the most durable value, and at what personal cost?”

The professionals making the step sideways are not opting out of ambition. They are opting out of a narrow architecture of ambition that confuses span-of-control with significance.

Kim’s quiet-ambition framing lands because it names what many people already feel: the old script asked for visible acceleration, no matter the hidden damage. The newer script asks for sustained contribution, aligned with life you can actually keep.

That is not smaller ambition.

It is a more adult one.

References
#

AI-Generated Content Notice

This article was created using artificial intelligence technology. While we strive for accuracy and provide valuable insights, readers should independently verify information and use their own judgment when making business decisions. The content may not reflect real-time market conditions or personal circumstances.

Whenever possible, we include references and sources to support the information presented. Readers are encouraged to consult these sources for further information.

Related Articles

Briefing Room: May 2026

May 2026 confirmed what the data has been building toward for months — AI is pulling up the bottom …

Tags

#individual contributor #leadership pipeline #career strategy #manager burnout #quiet ambition