Have you put your career ladder in the right place?
I heard a thought leader talk about positioning your “career ladder” years ago. He brought up a concept that I hadn’t considered until he mentioned it: the fact that your career ladder may be leaning on the wrong building. I remember thinking to myself, “How can that possibly be?”
I mean, we go to school, focus on a major, change the major (sometimes more than once!), graduate, and then go about the work of finding a job in a sector that we are hopefully interested in. Then we go to work.
For many of us, we look up, years later, as we are thinking about our next career move. We have built a reputation, are knowledgeable, experienced, and highly skilled. But as we start to create a plan for the next level of our career, we recognize one thing:
We put our ladder on the wrong building.
What do I mean by this? I mean that as we advance up the ladder, we often get to a place where there is no opportunity to step up to the next rung. The leadership positions above you are stagnant; no one has moved out of a position in years.
Or, your department or area is designed so that there just are no opportunities for advancement, despite your desire to elevate yourself in the organization.
What can you do at this point? You have established yourself as a leader and now you want to advance into a position that reflects all of your hard work and abilities.
How do you find your way to the career advancement that you so desperately want? How do you find the success that you seek?
And finally, do you have a coach or mentor to help you develop a plan for your career advancement? If you are not making the progress that you want, then it may be time to seek some help. In order to get what you want, you will have to have support. No one builds success in a vacuum.
Start thinking outside the box (or, off the current ladder). Identify the level that you are working to reach. Then begin to look at opportunities for moving in a parallel direction in order to reach the ultimate position that you want.
To continue with my ladder/building concept, it may be time to step off of your current ladder, walk across your current building to another one, and continue to build up.
Is there another department in your organization that can offer advancement opportunities that are not available where you are currently? Can you move to another position that will open up your chances to advance?
If you are thinking that you will have to “start over,” think again. Remember that you bring your experience, education, skillset, mindset and leadership behavior with you. If you make a parallel shift, you most likely will find yourself moving up your career ladder in a short period of time.
So, what next? Take some time to look up. Look at your current position, and the leadership roles above it. When was the last time someone vacated one of those positions? Has anyone been promoted out of where you are now? How long ago was it? What are the real chances of advancement from where you are currently?
If you want advancement and it doesn’t seem likely from your current position, begin to review and identify possible parallel position moves that you could make. Look at the leadership positions that you aspire to reach. Where did they come from? How did they get there?
So, check your ladder today. Is it leaning on the wrong building? If it is, it’s time to make adjustments and advance.