The inertia that you’re at war with is perception of your team from external parties. Promotion and ladder climbing is a signal that everyone is over performing

The inertia that you’re at war with is perception of your team from external parties. Promotion and ladder climbing is a signal that everyone is over performing and you are as a leader too. If the rest of the organization is moving up and your team remains static there will be a perception of under performance. It may not be true of course but, as they say, perception is reality. I like to combat this by giving my team goals to accomplish or lead some task on their own. Even if they are individual contributors they can still network internally to put their problem solving skills on display. An example would be if they took the initiative to have a discussion with HR/Sales/operations/anyone external about some pain points and how my team could help. Then spearhead the solution. Note: I manage financial analyst so it’s a bit different but they have an inclination to become siloed with headphones on all the time similar to developers so it could apply.