Horizontal and Vertical Professional Growth

If you ask any employee whether they want to grow professionally then the answer will be definitive yes. However, if you ask about the direction then the answers can vary. Today I would like to share my thoughts on two typical ways of professional growth.

Horizontal Growth

This type of growth means getting new knowledge and expanding areas of expertise. It often includes getting various skills in different areas related to your position and responsibility, participating in training and webinars, and sharing an experience with people at similar positions.

However, the primary concept that distinguishes it from other types is a low-to-middle level of knowledge in every related area. It is a jack-of-all-trades type: your knowledge covers an extensive area in your industry, and you can answer many questions and solve typical issues, but you will need advice from an expert to address complicated issues.

Such growth type is popular in small-to-medium-size companies. Every person in such a company plays several roles and, consequently, does not have enough time to become an expert in one area.

Vertical Growth

This type of growth is all about deepening the knowledge in one or two primary areas of expertise. People who are following this approach know a lot in these areas, continuously improving these skills, and often conduct training and knowledge-sharing sessions for their colleagues.

The main idea about this type of growth is acquiring deep and fundamental knowledge in primary areas. It is a typical expert type: you know some narrow areas very well and can consult other people about related questions, but at the same time require assistance in almost all other areas.

Vertical growth type is popular in big companies and corporations as they can afford to raise experts to solve various issues. Each of them can do only one or two things but do it quickly and efficiently.

The Best of Both Worlds

A question that everyone is probably asking himself now is “How to combine both growth types?“

There is no clear answer to this one. As we have seen, both types have pros and cons and work better under certain circumstances. The limiting factor is time: if you try to follow both approaches and get fundamental knowledge in many areas, you will not have time to do the job.

The only solution is to find a balance between the deepness of your knowledge and the number of areas of expertise. No matter the industry you are working in, you will never know everything well. You can just choose between the areas you want to learn and how deep you want to go.

Nevertheless, it is crucial to be aware of both these approaches and evaluate people’s knowledge appropriately. If your colleague is a good expert in some area, there is a high chance that he has only superficial knowledge in other areas, and vice versa. So, if you need to solve a problem, you need to understand how complex it is and ask for help from a person with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and qualifications.