6 Ways to "Spider Web" Your Career Path

Career paths are no longer about climbing a career ladder. A spider web or lattice career is a pathway that is vertical, horizontal and diagonal. Taking on cross-functional assignments or stretch projects allows you to grow your career by moving across the company.

Doing stints in different areas is critical to developing leadership skills needed in today’s complex organizations. Not only does it develop needed skills, it can help keep you engaged and grow your career without having to job-hop to another employer.

Why think of your career as a spider web?

A career web or lattice gives you opportunity to take on new challenges and explore other roles. This is a career strategy being adopted by more people as a way to showcase their value to the organization. Moving around an organization gives you different perspectives of how each department functions together and increases your value.

Companies are realizing that it takes more than technical expertise to succeed in a role; you need soft skills such as relationship building, teamwork, communication, problem solving skills and agility. The most talented people have skills that can be deployed elsewhere given the right opportunity. Many managers hold on to their best people by talent hoarding but that only works in the short term. Today’s employees are purpose driven and eager for new challenges.

6 Ways to Build Your Career Web