An employee who had been working in corporate and internal communications at a healthcare company for several years was ready for a promotion, but there was little opportunity to advance. Then, the company posted a job in its regulatory division. The position was at the same level as her current role but with a slightly lower salary. Embracing the concept of a career lattice, she decided to take a chance and try something new.
Her gamble paid off. Within a couple of years, she was promoted to vice president and was earning the highest compensation of her career. That lateral move helped her develop new relationships and new expertise—not just in corporate communications but in regulatory work as well, says Maria R. Pellicione, managing director and head of research and operations at Hechkoff Executive Search Inc. in New York City.
Career advancement is no longer limited to moving up a career ladder. Increasingly, employees are making lateral moves at work within a career lattice to gain additional skills and experience and establish new relationships and connections that will be helpful to their careers in the long term.
Traditionally, employees expect to move from associate to senior associate, or from assistant manager to manager, but that type of advancement isn’t happening as often as it has in the past, says Jody Fosnough, a training and development manager at Fort Financial Credit Union in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She describes today’s career advancement as more of a web than a ladder. “Where I see all organizations evolving is [employees] having a web of accumulated portable skills that are readily available to be used in a wide variety of different scenarios and situations,” she says.
Here’s how to take advantage of the career lattice at your organization
1. Build your network
The people who are most well positioned to make a lateral move are those who have incrementally built a diverse network of colleagues in a variety of fields and functions, says Anne Shoemaker, an executive coach in Greensboro, North Carolina. “They’re not just networking with people in marketing,” she says. “They’re networking with people with lots of different expertise, so when they are considering making that lateral move, they have a whole catalog of people they can call on.”
For instance, consider shadowing one of your colleagues in another department or take them to lunch and ask about their job and how it’s changing, Fosnough adds.
2. Develop portable skills
Lateral promotions can help you build a tapestry of experience, Shoemaker says. “Instead of being a one-dimensional account manager from the tech field, become a multidimensional account manager who has sat at the table in tech, manufacturing and other industries and therefore has a broader base of experience to draw upon in future roles,” she says.
Within her own industry, Fosnough sees the trend to hire people with broader skills. Credit unions want their frontline workers to have more than just expertise in operations—they also need experience in sales and customer service, and maybe even loan serving. “Traditionally, these are all different departments, but what we’re looking for is somebody who has that web of knowledge, [who] is going to be able to make more holistic decisions,” she says.
A Paradigm Shift in Traditional Organizations
There is a paradigm shift happening even within traditional organizations, Fosnough adds. Rather than focusing on a specific role or area of expertise during an entire career, employees can expect to be engaged in shorter projects that are based on their knowledge and experience. She says that companies are looking for employees who are adaptable and teachable and have high energy to complete a task and then move on to the next thing.
“If you’re taking a look at internal upskilling programs and internal mobility programs,” Fosnough says, “you’re looking at shorter life cycles like project-based work, gig-based work or maybe some mentorship on a specific situation or scenario.”
To prepare yourself for a lateral move, Fosnough recommends anticipating job function and industry trend changes by reading articles, attending industry events, listening to TED Talks and networking with colleagues. You need to be able to look at the market and decide if you might need the new certification Google offers, she says. Focus on portable skills you can get in a month rather than going back to school to learn business analytics, which could take years. “We don’t have time for that because by the time somebody graduates with those skills, we’re looking for something else,” she says.
3. Consider the opportunity
When evaluating a lateral move, it’s important to consider more than just the salary. Examine how this new opportunity could position you for future roles and where it might lead you, Pellicione says.
She also recommends exploring these four questions before accepting a lateral role:
- Is this a step backward from what you were doing three or four years ago?
- What could the opportunity bring you in terms of new contacts and new skills?
- Where can you make the biggest impact in this new role?
- How will the new role expand your skills beyond your current job?
For instance, if your current role doesn’t allow you to interact with finance and you really want to be more engaged in investor relations and communications, it would be a good idea to take a lateral role that offers more direct interaction with finance, Pellicione says. Then you would be interacting with the CFO, heads of finance and other members of the financial community. That would make a difference in your career by opening the door to other relationships and business verticals. “Ultimately, these are things that could really help build not only the skill set that you have but [also] expand on it,” Pellicione says.
Making a lateral move internally is also a good way to show the company that you’re committed to them, Pellicione says. “Companies sometimes go through reorganizations and restructuring. But if they see someone is committed to what they’re doing…, that’s going to really help you… get to where [you] want to be, too.”
Ultimately, lateral moves are about embracing a growth mindset, Fosnough adds.
