Take a look around the workplace. Some people possess highly differentiated behaviors, yet their compensation is low - they are undervalued, and their career growth is stumped. Other people possess few differentiated behaviors, yet their compensation is high - they are overvalued, and their careers are in jeopardy.
For healthy sustainable career progression, or even a wildly successful one, compensation or price (x-axis) and differentiation (y-axis) need to be proportionate. This becomes a win-win situation for company and employee. Imagine five levels of progressing price and differentiation.
At one end of the spectrum are entry-level roles consisting of a defined set of tasks to be performed. You don't need differentiating behaviors, and the price is typically low and often predefined. This is a 'commodity' role.
There are people I know today who have been in a commodity role, entering data into a computer, for forty years but happy and fulfilled. And while you would be forgiven for thinking that these people are complacent and unambitious, it is not always the case. In a mature industry like a brick-and-mortar retail with little transformation occurring most positions may be commodities up to and including the CEO role managing internal functions of finance, IT, HR, and legal.
At the other end of the spectrum are highly strategic roles with lots of ambiguity and risk. These require highly differentiated behaviors, and the price is extremely high, often tied to gainsharing or equity. This is a 'transformation' role.
In highly progressive companies driving big impact change, lots of positions will be skewed towards transformation roles. For example, a CEO driving disruption in the electric vehicle space or commercial space exploration can command tens of millions of dollars in annual compensation. With advancements in Artificial Intelligence and other technologies, we will see many companies become skewed towards transformation.
In between, you may be a 'product' (managing a capability that adds some kind of value), a 'service' (managing a process or multiple processes on behalf of others), or an 'experience' which we will cover later.
Our planet is changing rapidly fueled by a vicious cycle. Technological disruption is driving geopolitical disruption which is driving socioeconomic disruption which is driving technological disruption. Amongst all these shifts occurring, there hasn't been a better time to plot a career path.
