I have no ambition

In the world of work, the terms "motivated" and "ambitious" are highly valued. Job offers are full of terms that appeal to executives or future executives, ready to sacrifice themselves for their job. Internal promotions focus on young guns with sharp teeth, the very ones who send you emails at night or on weekends, for example. Those who are not considered part of this restricted circle of promising youngsters are most of the time ignored, sometimes put on a siding and sometimes thanked. However, they are necessary for the business. Some people have to do the dirty work. Just like a football team, a company cannot be made up of stars alone. The latter only shine if the rest of the team works in the shadows for them.

For my part, I have never been a workaholic. That's the least we can say. I am nevertheless conscientious, I follow through on things and, without wanting to brag, I can count on an intelligence full of common sense. This certainly comes from my personality type. INTJ. Thanks to these qualities, I was, and still am, very appreciated by my bosses. In their eyes, I am part, in spite of myself, of this caste of executives to be privileged. However, there in the middle, I always had the impression of being an imposter. I say it unequivocally: I have no ambition. It must be understood in the literal sense of the term: I do not want to climb the hierarchy, I do not seek responsibilities and I am not greedy for titles. Unfortunately, in the professional context, when we say of a person that they have no ambition, it is strongly pejorative. We assimilate this lack of interest in progressing in the company as a sign of weakness or laziness, or even downright cowardice or betrayal.

I am convinced that among the generations that followed the baby boomers, either the X,Y And Z, many of us are living this situation where we try to escape responsibilities, or we accept them reluctantly, in order not to be categorized as a burden. Ambition was a fundamental value among the boomers. It certainly had its good points since it coincided with a period of intense economic development. However, it also showed its limits, since when pushed to the limit it rhymed with reckless risk-taking, corruption and fraud. The repeated financial scandals of the early 21^e century are not unrelated to the rise of boomers within management structures. Consider, for example, Marcel Ospel and Bernard Madoff. It is therefore time to put ambition back in its rightful place, that is, to consider it as one of the many professional skills that can be valued. A company should not rely solely on ambitious people because it will never be able to satisfy them all. Conversely, it is not because an employee declares that he has no ambition that he should be considered as dead wood.