S9 E5: No One Wants the Top Job Anymore with Ciara Lakhani

Remember when getting the top job was THE dream?  Corner office, big paycheck, fancy title, and all the LinkedIn glory shots you could handle! Yeah…now for a lot of folks, it feels more like winning a free trip to a haunted house.  In this episode, I had a fun but important chat with Ciara Lakhani to unpack why so many people are quietly saying, “Hard pass” to climbing the ladder.  We’re talking burnout, invisible costs, shifting definitions of success, and why ambition doesn’t have to mean signing up for 80-hour workweeks and emotional whiplash.  Newsflash: You can be wildly ambitious about your craft without ever wanting your boss’s job, and that’s not a failure, it’s a choice! 0:02:47 - One Hard Truth About Work 0:04:57 - Realizing Your Team Isn’t Interested in Climbing to the Top 0:08:06 - How the Idea of Success Has Shifted for This Generation of Workers 0:15:43 - Why Top Jobs Aren’t Appealing to Most People Anymore 0:18:06 - The US’s Perception of Work vs Other Countries 0:22:01 - What Does it Take to be a Great Leader Today? 0:27:51 - Why People Are More Reluctant to Take on Leadership Roles 0:22:01 - What Does it Take to be a Great Leader Today? 0:32:35 - The Invisible Cost of Leadership 0:37:17 - Is Opting Out of Leadership the Same as Lacking Drive? 0:40:21 - How Cutting Middle Management Impacts Leadership 0:41:55 - Getting More People Interested in Leadership 0:44:18 - Advice for Somebody Considering a Top Job, But Quietly Questioning It Choosing the wrong HR platform is rife with regrets: losing a top performer, promoting the wrong person, or failing to engage your team when the business needs it most. Fortunately, you don’t have to choose between investing in people programs and consolidating your tech stack. With Lattice, you can have both. Visit lattice.com to learn more. And if you love I Hate It Here, sign up to Hebba’s newsletter! It’s for jaded, overworked, and emotionally burnt-out HR/People Operations professionals needing a little inspiration. https://workweek.com/discover-newsletters/i-hate-it-here-newsletter/   And if you love the podcast, be sure to check out  https://www.youtube.com/@ihateit-here for even more exclusive insider content!   Follow Ciara: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciaralakhani/ Follow Hebba:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ihateit-here/videos LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/hebba-youssef Twitter: https://twitter.com/hebbamyoussef