Quiet Ambition: How to Grow Without Losing Yourself

You want to grow.
You want to be seen.

But not at the cost of becoming someone you don’t respect.

In this short preview, Patrick Kamba shares a turning point from his own career -when he realized that pushing harder and speaking louder wasn’t the path forward.

Most people believe ambition has to be loud.

You have to speak more, push harder, and make sure you’re seen.

But what if that approach is actually working against you?

In this preview from the upcoming episode, Patrick Kamba - Executive Director, leadership mentor, and author of Quiet Ambition - shares how he discovered a different path.

A path where growth is built through clarity, relationships, and intentional action-not noise.

In this clip, you’ll hear:

• Why “ticking all the boxes” isn’t always enough
• The hidden role of alliances and understanding the system
• How stepping back helped him move forward
• The difference between performing… and truly progressing

If you’ve ever felt overlooked, frustrated, or unsure how to grow without compromising who you are—this is for you.

Full episode releases in 3 days.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

So I was a project manager at that moment and I wanted to be promoted. I was considering I was uh ticking all the boxes, and actually I was, but I was not aware at that moment that that they are all the moving pieces, that you need to build alliances and also understand the process of promotion. So I took the time because I saw some people be being, you know, a bit toxic, lobbying, starting to ask one-to-one with human resources, their land manager or the boss of their boss, and say, why am I not promoted? And I felt that it was not the right and appropriate behavior. That's why I decided to step back because I didn't want to become like this, but I was close to become like this. When I was introducing myself like 20 years ago, I was always saying that I was a performer. So it was very clear, you know, performing, delivering, pushing, dominating conversation, and uh, of course being seen and heard. That was my uh kind of uh big stamp because people knew that when I was in the room, they can be sure that things will happen. That was my um kind of self-promotion uh definition in the past. Then I I learned, and I like to say the hard way, but that's sometimes what needs to happen. I understood with time that actually when you are a bit more soft, smooth, that you build alliances, that you ask questions to people who have the power in order to understand and not in order to just reply and challenge and lobby. A lot of positive things can happen. And at that time, I didn't know it was quite ambition, but I had kind of seeds about building alliances, talking to the right people, asking for advice, and then things happened and that allowed me to actually grow further in my career and be where I am today. I was working in the steel industry, doing tin plate, you know, the metal boxes that you use for the perfume from Jean-Paul Gautier. Well, you know, the the green, I mean not the green, the gray one, the metallic. I evolved as an engineer for process in uh ink and paintings. Then I worked as a consultant, and actually I was a project manager in transportation industry, working on reliability of trains, and my business manager at that moment found an opportunity to do the same kind of job at GSK with vaccines, moving from project management in transportation to project management in vaccines. That is the trigger. And actually, it was really lucky because it was just my business manager who had an opportunity and said, you should be a very good fit for this kind of mission. So I was a project manager at that moment and I wanted to be promoted. I was considering I was uh ticking all the boxes, and actually I was, but I was not aware at that moment that they are all the moving pieces, that you need to build alliances and also understand the process of promotion. So I took the time because I saw some people be being, you know, a bit toxic, lobbying, starting to ask one-to-one with human resources, the land manager or the boss of their boss, and say, Why am I not promoted? And I felt that it was not the right and appropriate behavior. That's why I decided to step back because I didn't want to become like this. But I was close to become like this, to be clear. And then I tried and I asked some people, and guess what? They took the time to explain me what was happening. Because I was not lobbying, I was just curious to understand. And I was in a way quiet. And that is where I started to understand that by asking things in a very polite way, trying to understand, bring value, people talk to you, and then I learned the process it and and understood. And that is what has guided me even now on how to navigate, incorporate, and professional world in general.