The ladder divide : a look into leadership from both the individual contributor and manager perspective

Abstract

There is a common misconception that equates management to leadership. There is also a common school of thought that believes in order to lead one has to traverse the corporate ladder from individual contributor to the people manager side. There is also the common thought that an exceptional individual contributor will always make a good leader and/or manager. Misunderstandings along these schools of thought tend to lead to traversal of the corporate ladder either too soon, or incorrectly selecting a path which ultimately can lead to failure in the role. We will expand on these schools of thought and provide a better understanding to inform these decisions moving forward.