Why every company needs a guru track

Startups are by necessity cradles of innovation — pushing the limits of design, marketing, sales strategy and more. But one area where even groundbreaking ventures tend to fall flat is human resources.

Case in point: the “management track.” Climbing the corporate ladder in even the most progressive companies still generally starts with assuming a management role. As control extends over larger and larger teams, and eventually departments, you ascend in the hierarchy. Advancement — in terms of title, pay and recognition — is tied directly to people management.

People management is a specific skill set that not everyone has or wants to develop. Shunting top performers — contributors with valuable expertise all their own — down a one-size-fits-all management track hardly seems the most effective use of resources.

Silicon Valley has long recognized this issue. Google, Facebook and Apple are known for offering technical or specialist tracks for talented engineers who don’t aspire to management. Problem is a star engineer might reach the apex of the technical track (and his earning potential) after a few years, with no choice but to switch to management. Toward a guru track What’s missing, not just in the tech sector but across the board, is a dedicated, formalized track for exceptional performers who aren’t keen on managing people.

These are the experts who have amassed a unique body of knowledge and who continually push their company to perform better. They may be leaders, but they lead by example, not by mandate. They inspire co-workers with their singular contributions rather than through instruction. For them, we need something I’d like to call a guru track.

Gurus may be awarded the reins of progressively larger projects with bigger budgets, freed from daily responsibilities to work on new problems and product lines, asked to mentor promising new recruits or tapped as subject experts.

Promotions are based not on team performance but on individual impact and deepening of skill sets. Most importantly, gurus are rewarded the same way as individuals on the management track — with new job titles, opportunities for training and professional development, enhanced pay and incentive packages and other perks.

The result is a win-win for employee and employer. Exceptional employees get to continue doing what they do best while being given a clear path for advancement. The company, in turn, improves its odds of retaining those performers making outsized contributions.

Since talent attracts talent, a virtuous recruitment cycle is set in motion: High-calibre candidates will line up to work alongside the right gurus. Plus, as thought leaders writing and speaking about their areas of expertise, gurus function as key brand ambassadors. Making it work in practice At my company, a 700-employee social media firm, we’ve rolled out a dedicated guru track within our engineering team. Intermediate-level developers are given the formal option of becoming either “lead engineers” and managing a team or “senior engineers” and deepening their technical expertise.

Gurus and managers alike steadily move up the ladder in terms of compensation, title and seniority, depending on results they achieve. Employees can transition laterally from guru to manager and vice versa, without losing status: Some of our most senior people have switched several times.

But a guru track applies well beyond the world of engineering, which is why HootSuite is deploying it company-wide. There’s no reason a star salesperson needs to become a sales manager or a brilliant designer end up managing a creative team if that’s not the path they want to pursue.

It’s the yin-yang between managers and gurus that ensures a company’s success: gurus envision change, managers implement it; gurus look toward the horizon, managers see the bottom line; gurus rock the boat, managers steady it.

For startups focused on disrupting staid corporate culture and introducing new efficiencies, HR may well be one of the last frontiers. Recognizing that individual contributors need a path forward, too, is long overdue.

Advancement, in terms of title and pay, is tied to people management

Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, is an angel investor and adviser, and mentors startups and entrepreneurs. Follow him on Twitter @invoker and at linkedin.com/ influencer/2967511-Ryan-Holmes