Is it possible to get ahead and move up the career ladder without managing people?
It is a question that many have been asking for some time, regarding how to get ahead without managing people. That is, moving up the career ladder generally means managing people. Must be like this?
The higher you go in most careers, the more likely you are to become a manager. But many workers want to continue doing what they do best and not get involved in the complicated administration and politics of supervising other people.
To move up the career ladder, you shouldn’t have to be a manager.
This first contribution corresponds to Jeanne Sahadi who is a senior editor at CNN Business. Her coverage focuses on executive leadership issues, and before that, she covered federal taxes, spending and debt.
During her tenure at CNN, Sahadi also covered a wide range of policy debates, including health care reform, bankruptcy reform and welfare reform. She also reported on career issues, including salaries and benefits, company culture and the future of work. During her years covering personal finance at CNN, Sahadi was also a columnist for Money magazine.
Sahadi has been a guest on many CNN programs, as well as CNN affiliate radio shows and outside stations, including NPR.
In many companies, “climbing the ladder” usually means one thing: being promoted to management positions.
But there are many valuable and talented employees who have no interest in managing others or being responsible for the work of a team. For them, a promotion to leadership may mean an unhappy departure from what they enjoy and do well.
Such a promotion can also hurt employers if the person being promoted is unhappy or lacks management skills. After all, bad managers are often the reason why employees perform poorly or quit.
However, individual contributors who do not want to be managers still want to move up in terms of salary, professional prestige, and what they produce.
What can companies do to retain talented “non-managers”?
Companies should consider creating a second path to promotion, said Johnny Taylor, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
“There are two ladders: one is the compensation ladder and the other is the control span ladder. The individual taxpayer doesn’t necessarily want a margin of control, but he has to find a way to move up,” Taylor said.
Employers should also focus on ways that employees can improve and expand their skills and stay engaged, beyond simply making more money.
Companies that don’t offer growth opportunities could risk alienating some of the best talent, said Danny Nelms, president of the Work Institute, which studies employee engagement and retention.
Invest in people with growth opportunities
«If you’re not seen as a company that invests in people with growth opportunities, you won’t attract the people you need,» Nelms said.
Anyone who doesn’t want to manage should ask potential employers directly: «Do you have alternative routes to making more money and achieving more prestige in this position?» advises Marcus Buckingham, director of people and performance research at the ADP Research Institute and co-author of “Nine Lies About Work.”
«That’s one of the most important questions in evaluating the effectiveness of the organization,» Buckingham said.
Alternative ladders in some industries but not others
To some extent, such routes already exist in some industries, at least for top talent who can potentially earn more than their bosses, Taylor noted.
For example, a world-renowned surgeon may earn more than the head of his department or hospital. The same goes for star football coaches who can earn more than the university president, or media personalities whose salaries can exceed those of some network executives.
The IT industry has created advancement opportunities for developers and other engineers to earn higher salaries without having to manage others directly.
But in other professions, such as nursing, that is not usually the case. Typically, to advance, a nurse must transition from nursing to a supervisory role. “It is very difficult to move up. To grow, you have to breastfeed less,” Buckingham said.
Create new career ladders
The Work Institute worked with two healthcare organizations in the Midwest to help them reduce high nurse turnover. One of the successful remedies was to create new career ladders for nurses, Nelms said. That included assistance in obtaining advanced degrees, residency programs and higher salaries for different levels of achievement.
Employers in any industry seeking creativity, excellence and deep expertise, not to mention high employee engagement, will undermine those goals if all the money and prestige goes to those in management, Buckingham said.
Otherwise, he warned, “you don’t get innovation, speed, or dominance. You end up with a company full of project managers.”
HOW TO CLIMB THE CAREER LADDER
This contribution belongs to Colleen Gauder who is an author at Barrington College in Australia. She states that she is passionate about empowering people through education and training as they pursue their career aspirations.
Climbing the career ladder is often a combination of impressing people, performing well, and being visible for many months or years. It takes dedication and a real desire to reach the next level and keep going.
There is rarely a clear, consistent, universal path, no matter the company, industry, or position. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some near-universal strategies to ensure your career continues to grow and “climb the ladder” as many hope to achieve.
As always, it’s helpful to take stock of where you are and where you’re trying to go.
Why do you want to climb the ladder?
Understanding why you want to grow and get promoted will help you know the right path. Maybe you would like a more flexible schedule, a better salary, or a more interesting job. This important step should also help you decide if this is really the path you would like to follow.
What does it take to climb the ladder?
Deciding how you will achieve this can create an understanding of how you will achieve your growth and establish a time frame for realizing your ascension. Do you need to move to another city? Will you need to change companies?
It may be helpful to plot your path using a flowchart and starting with your current position. Between each promotion, write down what it will take to reach the next level, such as more training, management skills, certifications, or other factors.
Talk to people who are currently in the roles you want to grow into and learn from them what it takes to grow and expand. They will be able to speak from experience and offer suggestions.
Get the basics right
While moving up the career ladder can be complex, it starts relatively easy and simple. If you learn the basics of the job well, you will establish a good foundation.
Making sure you always arrive on time, meet deadlines, do your tasks well, get along with your colleagues, and contribute to a positive work environment are the kind of minimum requirements that must be met before most people can be considered for a promotion.
Without the fundamentals, it is difficult to move forward. If you don’t crawl well, you’ll have a hard time running, so to speak.
Progress is not instantaneous, so be patient but proactive. You’re unlikely to become a CEO in two years, but that doesn’t mean you can’t practice good habits and prepare for the next promotion. Ask yourself every day or even every hour how what you are doing contributes to achieving your goals.
As with everything, growth is not one big step, but a series of smaller steps that add up to a big result.
Onboard your manager
Healthy, productive work environments encourage growth, so it’s a good idea to talk to your manager and anyone involved in your progress.
They can help you make suggestions, introduce you to people you should know, and bring you into projects so you can gain experience and eventually act as an internal advocate.
They can also put you on the radar of those above them in higher positions and help you determine if you are eligible for additional company-paid training.
If you feel like your manager may be the type who is paranoid about those who work for him “taking his job,” be careful. This may be a secret mission that you undertake on your own; Politics in the workplace tend to heavily influence the stairs.
Keep learning
Climbing the ladder will often require taking initiative and helping yourself. When you created your graph showing how you will achieve your goals and get promoted, you probably realized that education will be an important factor.
Earning the right certifications not only shows that you’re serious about growth, but some promotions require a specific training level or certificate. Signing up before participating in a promotion will speed up the process.
Because promotions typically lead to management and leadership positions, having the ability to motivate and manage employees, make decisions, and consider big-picture concepts will be key.
Senior positions typically require a broader understanding of business, including marketing, human resources, accounting, and more, so be sure to focus on a well-rounded education.
There are many ways, whether in the classroom or online, to obtain this education and training, even with a work schedule to consider.
Take risk
Leadership and higher positions will mean being proactive and getting out of your comfort zone.
As you advance, be sure to demonstrate your ability to take on projects or jobs that may be more difficult or even above your level of experience, and be sure to do everything in your power to succeed on those projects.
Volunteer to help new staff, get involved in complex decisions, and if you have the opportunity to lead a big initiative, do your best.
Even if a promotion is a few years or months away, it can be helpful to express interest in openings when a senior colleague leaves the company or is promoted. It can give you the opportunity to demonstrate everything you have achieved so far and your desire to accelerate your career.
Ask about the opportunity. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no».
Ask for promotion, training, and the opportunity to try a new skill or project. Find ways to be resourceful and take on more than what is asked of you.
Many people remain stagnant and in inferior positions because they do not consciously focus on growing and learning, expanding their knowledge and skills, and preparing for the next step. Climbing the ladder is rarely an accident.
– What is your dream career path?
– Where do you want to be in one year, five or ten years?
– What does it take to get there and what can you do today to move towards your goal?
Why people don’t want to move up the career ladder to become managers
The following contribution is from Lidia Smith, writer for Yahoo Finance in the United Kingdom.
Only 1/3 of employees are interested in advancing to management positions. Becoming a manager was once an important step up the career ladder, but workers are increasingly avoiding this path.
However, this is not due to a lack of ambition. Today’s workers are redefining what success and, most importantly, job satisfaction look like.
A recent survey of 1,000 Americans by workplace analytics software company Visier found that less than half (38%) said they aspired to be a manager at their current company. The remaining 62% said they would prefer to remain individual taxpayers.
And it’s not the company that makes the difference, as only 36% said they were interested in becoming a people manager in a different organization. So why do people reject management positions and what does this leadership gap mean for companies?
Retire from the corporate routine
Whether you’re «quietly quitting» or adopting «quiet ambition» (focusing on individual fulfillment rather than traditional ideals of career success), TikTok’s workplace trends all point to one important fact. Many people are no longer willing to make their work the main focus of their existence and are drawing firm lines between their work and personal lives.
Instead of orienting their lives around their careers, employees are moving away from the corporate routine and shifting their priorities away from work.
When Visier asked workers about their ambitions, 67% said they wanted to spend more time with friends and family, 64% said they wanted to stay physically and mentally healthy, and 58% said they wanted to travel. Only 9% said they wanted to become managers and only 4% wanted to be in senior management positions.
The pandemic undoubtedly played an important role in this change. When faced with an unprecedented threat, many of us began to rethink what was important to us.
Suddenly, jumping from rung to rung on the career ladder seemed less important than our health and happiness, which ultimately come from having a good work-life balance. But this change was already underway before Covid-19. A 2014 survey of 3,625 workers found that only a third (34%) aspired to leadership positions.
People like to be individual contributors
Many people don’t want their boss’s job because they like the work they do. Being an individual contributor (doing your own work without managing other people) now has more status than before. A freelance developer can enjoy their work and earn a decent salary without having to deal with the challenges that come with management.
The prestige of being a manager is becoming less attractive
Since it can mean doing less than what you really want to do. Trading more hours and stress for an incremental amount of extra money no longer seems worth it. Among those surveyed, 40% said their biggest concern about becoming a manager was increased stress, pressure and increased time spent at work.
Many workers surveyed said they found working on projects more satisfying than the idea of managing other people.
Today’s workers don’t need to be managers to be successful and satisfied. And, more importantly, there are fewer opportunities for people to climb the traditional corporate ladder, as many organizations have become flatter.
Different generations have different attitudes towards work
According to research by the Washington Post, millennials (those born between 1980 and 1994) are less interested in managing other people. However, they are interested in moving forward and want more personal responsibility.
To address this shift, some companies have even changed their definition of success in the workplace by designing career paths that do not lead to management positions.
Child care costs
However, the most important thing is that not everyone rejects management positions by choice. When broken down by gender, Visier’s data reveals a stark gap between women and men. Of those surveyed, 44% of men are interested in becoming people managers in their current organization, compared to 32% of women.
Men still dominate workplace leadership and management roles in the UK, which may deter women from seeking senior positions.
Perhaps most significantly, more women are choosing part-time jobs
