Don’t climb ladders. Burn them. Build bridges instead

Success isn’t about the race to the top or having to prove you’re good enough, says Alan Patterson. It’s about carving a path of personal discovery and on-going learning without focusing on promotions, prestige or status

Success and value are tested in times of turbulence. As a result of the Covid pandemic, jobs were lost, living situations shattered, and livelihoods destroyed.

Success in the workplace – what we ‘do for a living’ – plays a major role in how we define our value. We need to feel good about ourselves, that people see us, acknowledge us and our contributions, and appreciate us for who we are and what we do.

In the past, organisational ladders were structures for certainty and predictability. But no more. Today’s social awakening and economic uncertainty expose the ladder for what it is—a mirage that makes it look like you are only limited by your ability to work hard, persist, and get results.

The game of climbing

Climbing the ladder is a progression of jobs based on bigger chunks of work and increased expertise, locked together in a stepwise structure. Each new rung has the potential for more formal authority, territory, status, and a bigger paycheck. The higher one progresses, the steeper the climb. Many hit a point where they will not go any higher. Some get stuck, others jump, and others are pushed off. Does that apply to everyone? Pretty much.

Why everyone is a pawn in the climbing game

1. The Peter Principle: In his 1969 book, psychologist and writer Laurence Peter wrote: ‘In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.’
   When people are promoted for their technical competence, not their leadership capability, they tend to micromanage and coerce others, usually signs they are in over their head.
   
2. This is a game that rewards only a small number of ‘qualified’ people: The ladder is a self-perpetuating system to maintain order and control, never intended to give everyone opportunities to move up. The idea that ‘you can be anything you want’ or ‘the sky’s the limit’ doesn’t apply to everyone fairly.
   
3. Moving to the next level is not based on performance: A good job does not speak for itself. Performance is not based on consistent, objective measures universally applied by a single individual, functional group, or larger organisation. Performance is judged, often by people who don’t know you that well, or not at all, including your manager.
   
4. As organisations merge, change disappear, there’s no telling what the ladder will look like two years from now, or even two months.

What it means to burn the ladder

‘Every act of creation was once an act of destruction.’

Picasso

Creating a different mindset

Consider a concept of work where success is not based on how high you climb, how much money you make, or how much territory you control. What if you destroyed the concept of climbing the ladder by burning it, that is taking ownership for your career development and not leaving it in the hands of other people who use a flawed structure and process to decide? Money and promotions are important. But as external rewards, their ability to motivate only goes so far.

From the generation entering the workforce to people with 20+ years of experience there is a desire to do something personally meaningful, rather than punch a clock or elbow their way up a ladder to promised uncertainty. The need to liberate personal motivation creates shock waves across organisations that are fighting for talent and straining to keep them. Everything is up for grabs – higher salaries, more benefits, and massive culture change initiatives with variable outcomes.

Many Ladder burners were once Ladder climbers, transformed by the pursuit of meaning and purpose. They recalibrated their world with the success of others at their centre, not personal achievements. They are now willing to travel along a non-linear path, knowing that building relationships with people who share their sense of fulfilment can take them anywhere, far different than nowhere.

Starting at the starting line

It doesn’t matter whether a person plans to climb the ladder or to burn it. Everyone has to start somewhere. When you climb the ladder, the first three to five years are more about counting pennies to pay your dues than living dreams with fat salaries and jumbo benefits. Climbing is all-encompassing. Achieve and Advance. ‘What’s next? How will I get there? How much more money will I make? Who’s getting ahead of me? Where did I go wrong?’ The pressures mount; unclear expectations, ego-driven needs, an unbounded sense of perfection, the fear of failure, competition disguised as collaboration, and the bureaucracy combine to create an emotional migraine and sense of unworthiness, while organisations fiddle with salaries and benefits to allay the pain.

Unleash your intrinsic motivation on the world

Even without a fully formed concept, Ladderburners lean in to:

• Own their professional development
• Find meaningful work as their personal, not organisational responsibility
• Build relationships, not personal achievements, to create a sense of purpose.

Instead of relying on external rewards, Ladderburners use different practices to liberate intrinsic motivation, the freedom of personal autonomy, a feeling of competence, and a sense of responsibility. Here is how they do it:

1Build a base of personal competence

Personal competence requires technical expertise and credibility. Credibility is a measure of how much people trust and believe in you based on your ability to commit and deliver something important to them. Expertise makes you smart. Expertise and credibility make you smarter.

2Build context

Context is the bigger picture that surrounds your job, an understanding of the what, how, and who of any situation. Building context enhances your ability to scan the organisation for critical people with whom you need to engage now and in the future.

3Build bridges

Building relationships is the source of meaning and purpose. They are the medium for how you accomplish work, sell your ideas and get commitment across a broader audience. Engagement soars when working with those who share common beliefs and interests. Building bridges is transformational, the place where liberating intrinsic motivation and working with others in a similar pursuit intersect.

4Create impact

Communication skills make you whole. Selling your ideas and getting commitment make you influential. Creating impact makes you a force.

5Create meaning

Creating meaning is getting closer to the heart of what is critical and important to you. Rather than an end goal, meaning is a process, transformed through the magic of relationships. As you find meaning, what is important in your livelihood is also what is important in your life.

Success isn’t about the race to the top or having to prove you’re good enough. It’s about carving a path of personal discovery and on-going learning without focusing on promotions, prestige or status.

Burn Ladders. Change your mindset. Build Bridges. Change what you do.