Is UP really the best direction for your career?

Over at FC Now, the Fast Company magazine blog, Linda Kaplan Thaler, co-author of the book Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in A Noisy World, suggests that climbing up the ladder might not actually be the best idea. She talks about people getting promoted to something they no longer love doing.

Picasso wasn't interested in becoming a curator. Meryl Streep is an extraordinary actress, but that doesn't mean she wants to or would be any good at running a studio. Why does corporate America insist on taking your job away from you if you're good at it and serve it up as a promotion?

Moving up the ladder can easily lead to a place where one's greatest gifts are never used. Our advice... stop promoting people, reward them for the great job they do and see just how far they (and the company) will go.

It probably won't surprise you that I agreed wholeheartedly. Here was my comment on her post...

I love the idea behind the horizontal advancement. I have seen SO many people who once loved what they did but have been promoted into a role that leaves them dreading Monday morning (or at the very least counting down the days till Friday).

One of the things that has kept looping back through my mind recently is exactly this concept - that UP isn't necessarily the optimum place to go. We have it ingrained in us from the get-go that climbing the ladder is what our careers are all about. And that's fine, if climbing the ladder continues to be a wild, juicy, fun-filled ride. But for many the fun starts to grind to a halt and work becomes a chore.

Maybe the best direction for any given individual isn't up, but around, or over. It requires a bit of a paradigm shift (OK, a lot of a paradigm shift), and it requires a healthy dose of introspection and self-awareness to know what the best option is, but it can make a huge difference in how people feel about their work.

Scott Palmer asked a great question in response to her post.

How do you continue to give employees the juicy salary increases they expect if you don't promote them? Year after year, people expect that their salaries will go up. Without giving them more responsibility, I can't justify the raises.

To which I replied...

Scott, that's a tough question. I'm looking forward to what Linda and others have to say on it. I think one thing that would be valuable to look at is the assumption that all employees want is a big fat raise every year. Korn/Ferry recently came out with some statistics that 76% of the executives they surveyed would rather have more job satisfaction than more money. That's pretty powerful.

Maybe part of what you can do is to start focusing on "fulfillment raises" (that's a clunky description, but the idea just popped into my head just now). Incorporating the idea that what drives people really is more than more money and more status.

Maybe it's about incorporating a program to help your employees identify the best opportunities for developing a career path within your company that would light their fire and keep them excited and engaged. Career development efforts generally seem to focus on how to move up the ladder, not what feels personally rich and fulfilling.

I'm a big believer in passion in the workplace as a competitive tool. Perhaps it's a concept worth exploring further for your company.

At the end of the day, I guess, it boils down to the question of what it is that really drives people. If it's purely money...well, you're hosed. I personally believe that money is only a part of the equation, and a small one at that. It's simply the most easily measurable measure - and so the one most frequently used.

Comments

[David]

Up is definitely not the best direction for your career if you are a creative, hands-on type of person.

Some enlightened companies have established alternate career paths for people who wish to climb a technical skills ladder rather than a management ladder.

On the matter of employees feeling they are entitled to fat raises each year...that can only fly if they are producing more each year. Not a popular view, but one I've held as an employee and as a manager.

More production deserves higher wages. Companies that honor this keep their best people. Companies that ignore this lose their best people.