Monday Morning Memo – The Road to the Top Isn’t Always Linear (Thank God!)

July 9, 2012

“Today’s career is no longer a straight climb up the corporate ladder, but rather a combination of climbs, lateral moves, and planned descents….” – excerpt from Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace With Today’s Nontraditional Workforce

I came across this quote while reading the highly publicized and, to some, controversial article Why Women Still Can’t Have It All by Anne-Marie Slaughter, the cover story the July/August 2012 edition of Atlantic Monthly. I have so many thoughts about this issue, as well as the additional coverage of the topic by the magazine, but, unsurprisingly, I’ve been too busy to really sit down and put pen to paper (well, fingers to keyboard) and hammer out a post on the topic. I hope to do so before the week is out. But in the meantime, I invite you to ponder the quote above. It is quite refreshing and something of a relief to learn that you no longer have to pursue a linear path to the top. This is something I’ve heard from other executive women in positions of power as well. Sometimes there are roadblocks, u-turns, lateral shifts, etc.

What has your experience been like so far? What about those high achieving individuals you admire? What stories can we learn from their ascent to the top?

— curvyceo

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