By Lisa Iarkowski

Take a moment to picture your career path.

Do you see an arc? A lattice? A rock climbing wall?

No matter how you picture them, today’s career paths look very different from the traditional steps up the ladder. The career lattice has become a prevalent career path model for both individuals and organizations seeking to remain valuable and competitive in the 21st century. While there are clear benefits to the career lattice, navigating a career path on it can sometimes seem anything but clear. But there’s a way through. By developing three career competencies, you can learn to master the lattice and strategically create your own career success with it.

The Lattice: You Are Here

Even though we are living in it day-to-day, the lattice can feel like a city we are visiting for the first time. So, let’s first get our bearings. According to Deloitte’s 2018 Global Human Capital Trends report, 21st century careers on the lattice focus on a series of developmental experiences, each offering a person the opportunity to acquire new skills, perspectives, and judgment. Instead of the traditional “up the ladder” progression of narrowly defined job paths and skills, careers here develop along alternatively vertical, horizontal, and diagonal paths, and are shaped by experiences and learning agility. This is defined in the report as “the ability and willingness to learn from experience, and then apply that learning to perform successfully under new situations.”. The lattice is dynamic and agile. It is adaptive, and “built for flexibility and movement.” To be successful within it, we need to be the same.

The potential benefits are impressive. These include more personalized career paths, ongoing growth and skill development opportunities, increased value and employability in internal and external labor markets, and improved personal career-life fit. The lattice affords the opportunity to create a highly-individualized career path, with the freedom to make professionally and personally meaningful career development choices based on our own unique career goals and personal vision of success.

3 Ways to Master the Lattice

Befriending the lattice and managing our careers in it is essential to our career growth and success. Research on contemporary career paths suggests that to do this effectively, we need to develop strength in three career competencies: Reflective, Communicative, and Behavioral.

Way #1: Your Reflective Competency

Imagine you want to take a trip. To choose a destination, you’d probably spend some time thinking whether you want to relax or have an adventure, and about the activities and sites that might interest you. Similarly, developing your career on the lattice involves reflecting on what you want and what’s important to you.

Give yourself ample time to reflect on your motivations, values, and passions with regard to your career. What does success look like to you? What matters most to you? Because the lattice is built for flexibility, it can support your personal vision of success–now and in the future. Also reflect on and assess your strengths, skills, and potential shortcomings. Doing this will allow you to be more intentional and strategic about moves on the lattice. And it will help you identify the best experiences to learn and develop new skills and perspectives, while also magnifying your current strengths and skills.

As you think about your skills, also think about the skills most needed in your career area now and in the future. According to Deloitte, McKinsey, and others, 21st century skills that are increasingly in demand are those that pair with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation. Most desirable is a blend of cognitive abilities such as creativity, learning, and problem-solving along with social skills such as teamwork, collaboration, and adaptability to change. Seeking out experiences that will help you further develop high-value skills can be an investment in your career growth and longevity.

Plan on doing some healthy reflection on a regular basis to foster continuous growth and to stay aligned with changes in your career area as well as your own career aspirations.

Way #2: Your Communicative Competency

A strong communicative competency allows you to effectively communicate with others to improve your chances of career success. Networking and communicating your value fall under this competency.

Networking in particular can help you identify potential experiences that may not be obvious. Forbes, payscale.com, and others indicate that as much as 80% of job opportunities are not advertised (i.e., the “hidden job market”) and are obtained through some sort of networking activity. If the prospect of networking gives you pause, think of it instead as an opportunity to build mutually beneficial relationships where you both give help and receive it. Networking also gives you an opportunity to learn more about career areas or potential moves that you are considering, both inside and outside your organization.

As you seek out experiences on the lattice, you will need to communicate your value—your personal knowledge, abilities, and skills—to the internal and external labor market. If you’re not sure where to start, take a first step by creating or revising your elevator speech. This is a targeted, succinct, and powerful way to communicate your value and get someone interested in what you can offer, especially in networking situations. Also, think about how can you take greater advantage of LinkedIn to publicly share your value on your profile and by expanding your network with individuals and relevant groups.

There are many ways to network and demonstrate value, so it makes sense to be strategic and intentional with how you do both. Make networking more inside and outside your organization something you do ongoing.

Way #3: Your Behavioral Competency

This competency focuses on your ability to shape your career by proactively taking action. This competency is critical because in the lattice, you are squarely and unequivocally at the helm of managing your career. And many organizations are simply not providing sufficient career management support. In Deloitte’s 2018 report, 72% of organizations report having a nontraditional hierarchy, yet only 18% say they give employees what they need to actively develop themselves and their career paths. Even with help from your employer, it’s increasingly expected that you are responsible for managing your own career.

You can build your behavioral competency by focusing on two areas: work exploration and career control. Work exploration involves actively exploring and searching for those work and career related experiences that will build your skills, abilities, and knowledge—i.e., those that increase your value and align with your career goals. Since the lattice is adaptive and flexible, these experiences can take many forms. They can be new internal or external experiences, lateral or vertical job moves, short term project work in a different team or functional area, a role in a new industry, and even skill building or job crafting in your current role. Exercising career control, you actively influence your learning and work processes by setting goals and planning out how to meet them. Try SMART goal setting to proactively create a plan to achieve your short and longer term goals. And revisit your plan regularly to track your progress and to set new goals as needed.

Mastering anything takes frequent practice and repetition. So, aim to strengthen your career competencies through frequent and regular use. Make them part of your routine, and you will soon master your career on the lattice!