By Barbara Poole
Career Coach

Joe, a client of mine who works in the pharmaceutical industry, is one of the most dedicated and talented employees any organization could hope to have. He’s been with his company for 18 years.

He begun his career as a retail pharmacist and steadily moved up the ranks, recently landing in a high-profile senior management role.

Joe is a quiet sort, very bright and extremely dedicated to the company, and he’s miserable.

When I spoke with Joe about his dissatisfaction with his new role, he shook his head.

“I don’t get it,” he told me. “I thought this was what I thought I wanted, and I know there are a lot of people in this company who would love to have this job. But all day long I find myself having to stretch outside of what’s comfortable for me. I’ve started to realize that this role just doesn’t play to my strengths.”

One traditional notion has hung on with a vengeance in the business world: If you want to get ahead, you have to climb the ladder.

In spite of the proliferation of flatter organizations, it’s still true that in many environments, you earn your stripes as a function of how many layers are below you in the structure, and how close you are to the top of the pyramid.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Ladder climbing can be a good thing, especially if you’re turned on by the challenge of overseeing a group of people, inspiring their performance and leading the way into the future.

The business environment needs people who are motivated by power and influence to shape the directions in which organizations go.

But what if that’s not your thing? What if what you really want to do is focus in on a specialty area or work with creative projects or simply maximize your individual productivity?

I once worked for an organization that was in the business of selling and servicing office equipment. This was a high-growth and high-turnover industry, so management positions opened up frequently. Time and time again, I saw the same phenomenon happen: When a position for a sales manager became available, they would take the best sales reps, the people who were reliable and consistent producers, and promote them into the job.

All too frequently, these new managers would lose momentum, become frustrated by the demands of the new role and miss the freedom associated with individual production.

What went wrong? The decision-makers had failed to acknowledge that the job of being a manager was a completely different type of position from sales, not simply the next level up in a progressive career. What made these representatives successful in sales roles were precisely the factors that made them unsuccessful as managers.

The decision to consider alternatives to traditional vertical movement ought to be a joint decision between the individual, his or her manager and the organization’s human resources or career development professionals. It’s up to the company to create a system that values and rewards innovation, lateral moves and skills expansion. It’s up to the individual to do the soul-searching around what the next “right” move really is.

So what if the idea of growing laterally seems appealing to you? What are some of the issues to explore as you consider whether to step sideways on the ladder?

1. Consider your interests and talents. Are you a strong generalist who enjoys shaping and guiding the work of others? That’s the job of management. But if your primary interests lie in figuring things out, solving technical problems, maximizing your individual productivity or specializing in a particular field, you may be better off as a member of the team rather than the leader of the team.

2. Make sure you understand what the jobs are really about. Being brilliant at mentoring others does not necessarily mean you will be a good manager or that you will enjoy it. Most managerial jobs require a fair amount of administrative responsibility, dealing with often exhausting personnel issues and the ability to juggle a lot of things simultaneously. Some people thrive on that kind of activity. For others, it’s excruciating.

3. Be realistic about how your organization views lateral movement. A company’s career development philosophy reflects its values. It is still true that in some environments, vertical movement is the primary avenue to getting ahead. Does this mean, then, that you should abandon the option of lateral expansion? Not necessarily. But get clear on the measure of value and the rewards associated with lateral movement. And if all else fails, you may want to move laterally to another organization.

Traditional ladder climbing will continue to be the right choice for many people as they consider how to grow professionally. But it’s nice to know that you don’t necessarily have to move up to get ahead. You may simply want to move over.

Barbara Poole is a leadership and career development coach with Success Builders Inc. E-mail her at coachbarbara@successbuildersinc.com.

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