Travelator or Escalator – What Path Are You Supporting?

A few months ago, I had a great conversation with Danny Simpson FIOD where he introduced a metaphor that has stuck with me ever since:

Escalator = Leadership Track, a vertical move into leading others

Travelator = Individual Contributor Track, accelerating forward in craft and capability

Both are valid, both are powerful, both are designed to accelerate development. One lifts you vertically into new responsibilities, the other keeps you moving forward and growing as an individual contributor.

Here's the reality: Not everyone wants to lead. But everyone deserves to grow. And as businesses, we have a duty to support that growth.

This is where it really matters:

Too many organisations treat promotion as the only form of progression

We often push high performers up the ladder because it is the only way we know how to reward them. But that often results in:

• New managers with no leadership training
• A loss of sales productivity from people no longer doing what they are best at
• Individual contributors feeling like their growth has a ceiling if they do not manage people

This is where businesses and leaders need to reset.

Development is not optional; it is a duty

Yes, individuals need to take accountability for their own development. But organisations have a responsibility to create an environment where that development is not only possible, but expected.

That means:

• Embedding structured development paths for both leadership and individual contributors
• Building regular checkpoints to identify skills gaps and behavioural traits
• Normalising lateral growth, not just vertical promotion
• Giving people the language and confidence to choose their own track

If your only visible sign of progression is managing a team, you are narrowing ambition to a single path. And that is a huge miss.

What Should We Be Looking At?

Whether you are managing a team or designing enablement across an organisation, we need to start asking:

• Do we know who actually wants to lead people, versus who feels like they should?
• Are we clear on what behaviours make a great individual contributor compared to a future leader?
• Do we reward technical excellence in selling in the same way we reward team oversight?
• Have we built progression frameworks that serve both paths? And celebrated both equally?

When you start answering those questions honestly, you unlock a new level of performance across the board.

Growth Happens When You Respect Both Paths

Some of the best people that I've met never wanted to manage others. They wanted to master their craft, stay close to customers, and become known for their excellence. That should be celebrated, not boxed in.

Others feel a strong pull to lead, coach, and scale their impact through others (shout out to Jacob Horn , who shared their story on the ISP NextGen podcast). That is a different skill set entirely. Also valid. Also incredibly valuable.

We need to stop positioning leadership as the “next level” and instead make it one of two equally important routes forward.

The Call to Action

If you are a sales leader or business owner:

• Are you clear on who in your team is on the Travelator versus the Escalator?
• Have you made both options visible, respected, and structured?
• Are you checking for behavioural and capability fit, not just performance results?

And if you are an individual contributor:

• Are you owning your development plan?
• Have you expressed which path you want to be on?
• Are you actively closing your skills or mindset gaps to accelerate forward?

We need to build sales organisations that develop people, not just promote them. Growth looks different for everyone, but support should be universal.

I would love to hear your take.