In our careers, we are groomed to think in terms of incremental or bold moves up. But lateral moves can be even more important.
Recently, I was speaking to a senior executive at a major global company – we’ll call her Kirsten. She told me this story. “I had a very good situation at my company early in my career. I was happy, liked the work and liked the people in my department. Then, one day after I had worked there five years, my boss said to me, ‘Kirsten, you’re talented and hard-working, but if you want to go anywhere in this company, you need to know something outside of this department. You need to know how the larger corporation works. You need to know people in other businesses and what they do. You need broader experience.’”
Kirsten was smart and ambitious, but, at first, she didn’t like her boss’s advice. She was content. She hadn’t thought of moving precisely because she was doing well and liked the people she worked with.
From a branding perspective, when you are doing well but aren’t growing anymore is precisely the time to think of expanding your brand footprint. It’s the time when brands thinking in terms of expanding into new markets, adding more bells and whistles or building new alliances. And people should too. Learning new things and gaining new experience though a lateral move will help keep your brand relevant and vital.
Even though she didn’t want to make a change, Kirsten discussed possible lateral moves with her boss and interviewed for one. At first, it wasn’t easy. The new department and area of responsibility was completely outside of her comfort zone. She described early meetings where her new colleagues used lots of jargon she didn’t understand. Kirsten had a plan. She carefully took notes, then went back to her new team, and asked them to help her decode what was said and what she needed to do. Kirsten went on to make a series of lateral moves and well as moves up. She’s even set up a system in her division to actively promote and encourage lateral moves for employees. Today, she’s a C-level executive at her company.
