Thermoforming Report

by Keith Brown, President & Owner, Siena Group

Experience Doesn’t Lose Its Value When the Title Changes

For years, the traditional executive career path was fairly predictable: work hard, take on more responsibility, move into a larger role, lead more people, and continue climbing. The next step on the career ladder was always up.

But what happens when the ladder changes?

A recent Harvard Business Review article by Lynda Gratton, The Predictable Executive Career Arc Is Over, argues that the traditional career timetable is disappearing. Longer working lives and rapid technological change are making it increasingly difficult for professionals to map out exactly what their careers will look like years from now.

One line from the article caught our attention: “Preparation rather than prediction.”

That idea resonates with what we’ve been seeing in the manufacturing talent market over the past year. We’ve talked with several highly accomplished candidates who found themselves unexpectedly back in the job market because of consolidation, reorganization, acquisition, or merger activity.

These are not people who failed.

In many cases, they were successful leaders who had built teams, improved operations, led major initiatives, developed people, brought in significant business, and accumulated decades of valuable industry knowledge. Their circumstances changed because the organization changed. And what we’re seeing is that many of them aren’t simply looking to recreate the position they left behind.

For these candidates, moving forward doesn’t always mean higher. They aren’t necessarily looking for another bigger title. In fact, some are intentionally looking for something different.

Experience Doesn’t Always Need a Bigger Title

For an accomplished leader, the natural assumption is that the next position should be another senior-level role with greater scope, more people, and more responsibility.

But after years in a leadership role, some professionals discover that what they value most isn’t the title. It’s the opportunity to make an impact.

• They want to mentor people.
• They want to solve problems.
• They want to be closer to the operation.
• They want to work with engineers, maintenance teams, production teams, sales teams, and plant leadership.
• They want to take what they’ve learned over decades and put it to use.
• They want to be on the floor.
• They want to be in front of the customer and land new business.

And there is nothing about that decision that represents a step backward. It is about doing what they love.

In manufacturing, particularly, there is enormous value in having someone with extensive leadership experience who is willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the actual work.

A Corporate Engineering Leader who has spent years solving complex manufacturing problems across multiple facilities may decide that the next chapter should involve working directly with a plant team.

A former Operations Executive may decide that leading one operation extremely well is more rewarding than overseeing a larger organization from a distance.

A Senior Technical Leader may want to spend more time developing engineers and technicians, transferring knowledge that took decades to acquire.

A Vice President of Sales may seek to get back to their roots and focus on business development, getting back on the road and leveraging a career’s worth of client relationships to generate top line growth for an organization.

These candidates aren’t stepping away from their experience. They are leveraging it differently.

When the Career Plan Changes Without Your Permission

The HBR article makes another important distinction: a career plan assumes we can identify the destination and map the route. But when the future is uncertain, the goal becomes preparing yourself to respond to whatever comes next.

That distinction becomes particularly relevant when a career change isn’t something you chose.

We’ve seen this with candidates who expected to remain with their organizations for years, only to have their roles eliminated or significantly changed because of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or consolidation.

Suddenly, the five-year plan doesn’t matter much.

The question becomes: What do I want to do with what I’ve learned?

A CASE IN POINT

One candidate’s experience illustrates this particularly well. His plant is being closed and its operation consolidated into another state. He had a choice: relocate into a different role within the new operation or leave when the plant closed.

Instead, he chose a third option.

He’s helping get the new operation up and running and training the team that will take it forward. But he isn’t planning to stay permanently. He’s thinking beyond the immediate assignment and considering what he wants the next chapter of his career to look like.

And that’s an important distinction. He’s not simply looking to recreate the position he had before. He’s thinking about how he wants to use the experience he’s accumulated and where he can make the greatest contribution going forward.

• The next role needs to be meaningful.
• It needs to use the expertise he’s spent decades developing.
• And it needs to put him in a position where he can make a tangible difference – with a team, in an operation, and ultimately across the organization.

That is not settling. That’s clarity about what comes next.

What Still Matters?

Another idea from Gratton’s article struck us because it aligns so closely with what we’re hearing from candidates. She describes leaders moving away from asking what their next position should be and instead asking, “What will still matter 10 years from now?”

That’s a powerful question for an experienced manufacturing professional.

Titles change. Organizational structures change. Companies merge. Divisions are consolidated. Plants are acquired or closed. Leadership teams change.

But expertise doesn’t disappear simply because the organizational chart does.

• The ability to troubleshoot a difficult process.
• The ability to recognize a problem before it becomes a crisis.
• The ability to walk into a plant and know what questions to ask.
• The ability to develop an engineer into a stronger technical leader.
• The ability to understand the connection between tooling, equipment, process, people, quality, and production.
• The ability to build business relationships that translate into bottom and top line sales.

Those capabilities compound. And they don’t become less valuable simply because someone is no longer interested in sitting in the corner office.

Sometimes the Best Next Move is Closer to the Work

There is something refreshing about talking with a highly experienced leader who says, “I don’t need the biggest title. I want to make a different kind of impact.” That mindset can be incredibly powerful.

Manufacturing organizations need leaders who understand strategy, but they also need people who understand how strategy translates to the plant floor or how the right products and sales translates to real profitability. They need people who can walk into a facility, identify a problem, ask the right questions, work with the people closest to it, and find a solution. They need people who can recognize talent, develop Engineers, Technicians, and Account Managers and transfer knowledge before it walks out the door. They need road warriors who know how to bring in and close new business. And they need experienced professionals who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

For some candidates, the next chapter may still be an executive role. For others, it may be a plant leadership position, a technical leadership role, a consulting assignment, business development, or a position that sits somewhere between corporate strategy, sales, and/or hands-on manufacturing.

The title may be different. The scope may be different. But the impact can be just as significant – and sometimes greater.

The Career Isn’t Over. It has Changed.

The old career model taught us to think vertically. What’s the next step in the career ladder? What’s the next title? What’s the next promotion? How much bigger can my responsibilities become?

But careers today aren’t always vertical. Sometimes they’re lateral. Sometimes they move closer to the work. Sometimes they take an unexpected turn because circumstances outside our control force a thoughtful change. That doesn’t make the experience accumulated along the way any less valuable. In fact, it may create an opportunity to use that experience in a way that wasn’t possible before.

As Gratton writes, “your real advantage will come not in predicting what might come next but in preparing yourself to navigate that outcome, whatever it is.”

We see that every day in the conversations we have with experienced manufacturing professionals. The next move doesn’t always have to be up. Sometimes, it needs to be right.

And for an experienced leader who wants to stay close to the work, develop people, solve problems, sell new products, and make a meaningful contribution, that can be a very powerful next chapter.

At Siena Group, we are your Thermoforming Talent Partner! We’re here to help in any and every way possible! With more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, hiring & recruiting talent, we bring a greater understanding of the companies we partner with and the candidates we pursue. Let’s Strengthen Your Search!