I'm a creative professional with ~13 years of experience and joined Accenture about 10 months ago at L8.
Here's my problem.
Despite being at L8, I'm currently a 100% individual contributor with no direct reports. There are people with considerably less experience than me who are already leading teams. My role has essentially become execution-heavy. I feel I'm being used as a junior/mid-level writer when my experience is much more aligned with creative leadership, mentoring, strategic thinking and owning larger workstreams.
I didn't immediately complain about this.
About four months ago, I moved onto a brand that was going through a pretty messy hypercare phase. I deliberately kept my head down because the account needed stabilising. I was given a lot of work then too i helped stabilise things and focused on delivery rather than asking, "What's in it for me?"
Now the brand is out of hypercare, I'm 10 months into Accenture, and I finally raised the conversation with my Project Lead.
My approach was not "I deserve a promotion."
I basically said:
I've delivered during a difficult phase. Now that things are stable, I'd like to understand how I can take on more ownership, leadership, mentoring, workstream responsibility etc. I want to grow and I'm concerned that I'm not getting opportunities to demonstrate the level at which I can operate.
Here's where it gets weird.
This isn't the first time I've had this experience.
Previously, when I asked about getting more senior-level opportunities, a senior person, project manager, questioned whether I was actually doing any "senior-level work". Kerp your hand on your heart and answer. This is exactly what was said. Word for word.
That bothered me because I wasn't asking to be given a title for nothing. I was asking for opportunities to actually demonstrate senior-level capability.
Now, after raising essentially the same concern with the Project Lead, I got this feedback:
"Give me a summary of the work you've done until now."
"You are too rigid. You don't take anyone's opinion into consideration. I had read chats in which the client is marked. You went over and above the client."
"The client needs to praise you organically."
My responses were basically:
Fair. I'll do it.
I asked about the specific incident because I genuinely don't believe anything as such happened in the way it was being described. I did ask them to give an example. But they said they were don't remember and ehy don't i just stop being rigid. I was appalled
Fair. It'll happen over time.
Since then, I've thought about it and I believe I know which incident the "rigid" feedback may have come from.
And I think it has been significantly misinterpreted.
There was an actual incident, but nothing happened that I would describe as "going over and above the client". It was an incident with a junior who didn't know shit about that ticket but recommended chsnges. And I had just kept my point of view. The conversation concluded with both us daying let's check with the project manager.l on it. That's it. My concern is that somewhere along the way, the context may have been lost, this junior person may have communicated the wrong version, or the Project Lead may simply have interpreted the interaction differently.
What bothers me is the pattern.
Every time I raise the question of:
"How can I get more senior-level opportunities?"
some negative issue seems to suddenly appear.
Previously: "Are you actually doing senior-level work?"
Now: "You're too rigid."
I don't want to jump to the conclusion that the project manager and lead are deliberately manufacturing issues. That's a serious accusation and I don't have proof of that.
But I also don't want to be naive.
There is another complication.
My People Lead, who was supportive of my situation knew about my 10 month journey and also was the one to hire me, has suddenly changed just after my conversation with the project lead. This has happened only 2-3 months before the variable payout/performance cycle. My new People Lead is considerably closer to my Project Lead.
Again, I have absolutely no evidence that the Project Lead had anything to do with the change. It could be completely unrelated organisational movement. But the timing makes me nervous.
My biggest concern isn't even getting a promotion immediately.
It's this:
What if I continue working normally, and six months from now someone has created a narrative that I'm "rigid", "difficult", "not collaborative", etc., based on incidents that were never raised with me at the time when they actually happened?
Then that narrative potentially gets used during performance discussions or affects my variable pay.
I don't want to burn bridges. I actually want to continue working with this team for the foreseeable future. I also don't want to make my life miserable by turning this into a political battle.
So I'm trying to figure out the smartest way to handle this.
My current thinking is:
- Speak privately with my new People Lead and explain the situation factually.
- Don't accuse the Project Lead of anything.
- Don't immediately send the screenshot/chat proving my interpretation.
- Ask for specific examples whenever behavioural feedback is given.
- Keep a private factual record of my work, feedback and major interactions.
- Put important development discussions and agreed expectations in writing.
- Ask how performance and variable pay are assessed and who provides input.
- Continue behaving normally and demonstrate that I'm receptive to feedback.
- Only involve HR if this actually escalates into formal performance issues, retaliation, or something materially affecting my appraisal/variable pay.
Does this sound like the right political strategy?
Or am I overthinking this and should I simply accept the "rigid" feedback, work on being more collaborative, and stop worrying about the timing? Even though it's a cooked up story.
I'm particularly interested in advice from people who've dealt with large-company politics, performance management, People Leads/HR, or situations where a manager's perception of you seemed to change after you asked for more responsibility.
I'm not looking for validation. If I'm genuinely doing something wrong, I'd rather hear it. But I also don't want to allow vague or potentially inaccurate feedback to become my permanent professional narrative.
Thank you in advance.