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"So, They Gave You A Team. Now What?" Chapter 7: S.O.M.O The Quiet Middle In this chapter, let us talk about a moment every manager eventually encounters. The day someone in your team says they do not feel like they are growing here. For me, that moment came in 2021 during a casual one-to- one. It was not a review or anything formal. It was the kind of conversation you walk into casually, and somewhere in the middle of it, my teammate said he felt stuck. I remember sitting there listening, because from my side his progress was very clear, but from his side nothing felt different. The work had become familiar. The pace felt predictable. And predictable progress never feels exciting. That was the first time I truly understood how different growth looks depending on where you sit. When you observe someone else, the improvements are obvious. When you live those improvements yourself, they blend into the rhythm of the day and disappear into routine. And during that post-covid phase, the world outside was louder than ever. Everyone online was showcasing promotions, job changes, success stories, and overnight jumps. And yes, Instagram did not help either! Every other reel was talking about F.O.M.O and J.O.M.O as if life is a choice between two extremes. Either you chase every new opportunity or you detach from everything completely. But the truth is, real careers rarely move in these extremes. They need a space in the middle. A space where you can stay aware of what is happening around you without letting it derail what is happening within you. That is where S.O.M.O makes sense to me...The Sense Of Missing Out. Not fear and not detachment. Just a balanced awareness that helps you look around without feeling pressured, and look within without feeling isolated. It reminds you that not everything happening outside deserves your attention, and not every quiet season in your own journey is a sign of being stuck. As I have mentioned in my book, "The Startup Manager: The Unspoken Art of Building Teams and Trust", Growth does not always arrive with noise. Sometimes it moves like a shadow, shaping you long before you realise what it has built inside you. When you understand that, you stop waiting for obvious signs of progress and start recognising the subtle shifts that truly build capability. So whenever someone in my team says they feel they are not growing, I explore what growth means to them in that phase of their life. Sometimes it is a new responsibility. Sometimes it is clarity while sometimes it is simply visibility into the progress they have already made. And once that becomes clear, the feeling of stagnation usually loses its grip. S.O.M.O plays a quiet role in this. And believe me, very often, that quiet middle is where momentum starts again.