Why the career jungle gym matters now more than ever

Now is the time to view your career as a jungle gym.

Meaning:

1. Think broadly about career opportunities.
2. Sharpen your peripheral vision.
3. Swing to opportunities on your left…or your right.

“Build your skills, not your resume,” as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wisely says.

Eight years ago, Sheryl’s best-selling book, Lean In, inspired us to embrace risk—and say “yes” to opportunity. In Chapter 4, “It’s a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder,” Sheryl kindly gave me credit for first observing that the smartest and most successful people navigate their careers like a jungle gym. 

Here’s why the jungle gym concept is more important now than ever: The world is ever more fast-changing and unpredictable, and the rung above you on the traditional “career ladder” may not be not a stable or safe rung.

Last week, I told a big gathering of the healthcare data science giant IQVIA that while the “career ladder” may look attractive (ever since childhood, we’ve been trained to aspire to greater heights), the “career jungle gym” can be more strategic.

IQVIA’s leaders embrace the “jungle gym” concept, noting in their Career Switch Toolkit: “Single, long-lasting careers are becoming a thing of the past.”

With the rise of outsourcing and AI, and the need to become multidisciplinary, horizontal moves make sense. “You will be exposed to new problems, new situations, and you will get the opportunity to explore other areas, connect with different people and combine your talents, skills and interests to grow,” the IQVIA Toolkit notes.

“To execute well, think long term,” I counseled the audience, pointing out that many women on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list (which I co-founded) have strategically navigated the jungle gym, sometimes taking jobs a rung down to acquire new skills for long-term growth—some even becoming Fortune 500 company CEOs.

I asked the IQVIA audience: “What is the most important trait to succeed?”

1. Risk tolerance/understanding
2. Resilience
3. Curiosity
4. Flexibility
5. Optimism

Resilience topped the vote count. No doubt this is a sign of these turbulent times; we all need resilience to pick ourselves up after we fall. (“So you Fail, So What?” as I wrote in a Fortune cover story that is forever relevant.)

My No.1 choice is Flexibility. Why? Flexibility—in both managing and being managed—is an increasingly critical trait. Success favors the nimble, people who are open and adaptable and ready to swing toward opportunities as they arise. 

In fact, you need all five traits to navigate the jungle gym safely and well.

Curiosity induces the peripheral vision that enables you to spot unexpected opportunities. (Alistair Grenfell, IQVIA’s President of EMEA, calls it “panoramic vision.”)

Risk tolerance and understanding builds the muscle to swing to those opportunities.

And Optimism gives you the courage and confidence to act and grow. (Yes, I can!) I ended my talk quoting Satya Nadella on optimism. The Microsoft CEO’s view of optimism—finding the rose petals in a field of shit, as he says—is priceless in this wonderful Fortune profile.