I feel like I've peaked in my current position at my company and have been feeling bored and unchallenged for the last year. Short of leaving my company—which doesn't seem very likely nor prudent at this point given the state of the economy—what can I do to get back on track?

This is a familiar situation for many people, especially with opportunities for growth and development shrinking in the current environment. You need to be aggressive, though, and look for areas in your organization that are growing most quickly and try to get involved in them in whatever way you can, such as by volunteering to serve on company task forces and committees. Another strategy is to seek out the entrepreneurs in your company, the ones who have a track record of pushing through new initiatives, to see what they're doing and whether you can help in some way. You might also look for white spaces in your company that no one's taken ownership of where you can make your mark—look for unmet needs and figure out how you can address them, just as you would if you were starting up your own company.

One of my former clients was a leading salesman at a petroleum-products company who had pretty much topped out—he was meeting his quota every year, but there was really nowhere else to go. So he made a relatively risky move into a marketing role in another division of the company, which enabled him to develop some new skills and open up some new doors. After 18 months in his new role, he had performed so well and developed so many more relationships at the company that his sales group asked him to come back—not as a salesman, though, but as a regional sales manager.

Another recent client who peaked in his operations job at an office-equipment company managed to persuade his superiors that his perspective would be valuable on a task force mapping out his company's future. Since he was so excited about these new ideas, he worked very hard on the committee and impressed the senior execs with his zeal and creativity. Eventually he was able to parlay that high regard into an opportunity to head up one of the new initiatives the task force had approved, giving him a new lease on life.

In each case, these people were able to open up new areas for themselves to add to their skills and to keep challenging themselves, and that's what you need to do as well.

Dr. Ron Brown is a leading expert in the fields of leadership development and organizational change. He is the founder and president of Banks Brown, a management-consulting firm that specializes in providing skills to optimize the performance of leaders and organizations. He can be reached at rbrown@banksbrown.com or 415-788-5444. Questions for Power Plays can be submitted on this page.