Listen to the Destination: Success Podcast.

Related Fun Fact of the Week: The longest wooden ladder in the world measures 135 ft long. It was made by the Handwerks Museum, St. Leonhard, Austria and completed in April 2005. The ladder has 120 rungs.

What a ladder to climb!

For over 50 years, the term “climbing the corporate ladder” was often a definition of success.  The idea of starting at the very bottom and working your way to President or CEO seemed to be the the ultimate working dream.

But, “climbing the corporate ladder” is no longer seen as a path to success, just a symbol of past, ineffective, highly political performance models that often would define the most “qualified” as having the most organizational tenure or time in a position. Or even who you know that might assist you in skipping a few rungs on that ladder.

Thankfully, organizations are rapidly evolving from archaic “corporate ladders” to agile “performance networks”  that identify and leverage unique talents and experiences and matches that talent to unique current and future performance opportunities.

Positioning yourself for this evolution of performance requires knowing, cultivating and leveraging your unique talents.  Developing the capability and capacity to lead where you are, no matter where you are.  This means leading your personal performance, not waiting to have your performance managed or reviewed.  Leading change, not waiting for change to happen or letting the status quo consume your performance environment.  Being accountable, even when others aren’t.  Creating and sustaining authentic relationships, moving past just the communicating and truly connecting with others. And working with purpose and conviction, coming into work each day with a plan and attitude to help others be the best they can be by being the best you can be.

By leading where you are and intentionally developing the unique leader and talents within yourself, you define and cultivate your own future and you don’t let symbols from the past define your path to success.

Want to know more on leading where you are? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package, complete with online courses, guidebooks and other resources.

For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!

Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.