For previous generations, the Corporate Ladder represented the path to success and prosperity. Today’s progressive companies with the most engaged workforce have embraced the Corporate Lattice. Here are five ways the Corporate Lattice helps LINX and our committed team members.
1) A Journey
Unlike a fixed multi-year path with inflexible career options of the Corporate Ladder, the Corporate Lattice represents a journey for the employee and the company to grow together. The employee and the company collaborate to invest in a development plan, a performance plan, measurements of success and opportunities to grow. Throughout the journey, the path to a successful future is assessed. At times the growth may be up, down, left, right or diagonal.
2) Constant learning and growing
The Corporate Lattice enables opportunities for continued growth and learning. Growth can come in many forms including technical skills, people management, client management or business functions. Employees may choose a path to master a specific skill or develop skills across the organization that broadens their skill and sets them up for future opportunities.
3) Starting over without moving
Often, we feel that in order to change our career path we need to start over. Have you ever found yourself in a challenging situation and it seemed the only way out was to pull a parachute and exit? What if you faced the situation head-on through open, honest and collaborative discussions? Imagine if you had a coach or mentor to help guide you through those challenging times to find a new path without starting over. Starting over feels easy at the time, but there are direct and hidden costs of starting over. A few years later, you may find yourself in the exact same situation and then you have to start over again. This pattern repeats and many years later you wonder, “Why does this keep happening?”
4) A collaborative approach – with opportunity comes responsibility too.
The Corporate Lattice requires a collaborative, engaged approach between the organization and the employee. It begins with regular 1-1 meetings between yourself and your leader. Both the employee and the manager have a responsibility to ensure these 1-1s happen and for what takes place in them. A great leader will act as a coach in these 1-1s by asking questions, seeking understanding, gaining commitments from the employee and holding them accountable in the future. An employee will bring challenges, ask for help on how to approach them, set clear goals and hold themselves accountable to results.
5) More frequent communication.
As leaders, we all seek to create an engaged workforce. The foundation of the corporate lattice requires more frequent communication. When done well, employees see many opportunities in the organization to continue growing and to contribute. Successfully managing a corporate lattice means we are regularly engaging in meaningful conversations with our employees and employees are consistently assessing their own performance.