Learn a 6-path framework for building multi-directional growth that boosts retention and aligns with your team’s true strengths.
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Episode 7 | Watch on YouTube
Here is a number that should stop every practice owner in their tracks: only 34% of employees actually aspire to managerial roles, according to the Harvard Business Review. Yet most private practices offer exactly one path to growth: up the management ladder. The result? You promote the wrong people, frustrate the right ones, and wonder why retention is a constant battle.
In this Quick Tip episode of the Private Practice Survival Guide, Brandon Seigel lays out a vision for multi-path career ladders that open growth opportunities for every employee, regardless of whether they ever want to manage anyone.
When the only path to advancement is management, you create what Brandon calls a one-way road where employees lose a little more of themselves at every tier if the role does not genuinely fill them. Just because someone is exceptional at a skill does not mean performing that skill daily fills them with purpose. The same person who is brilliant at Excel might find four hours in a spreadsheet soul-draining. Yet if that is the only path to advancement, they have no choice but to follow it, or leave.
Brandon's framework starts with two foundational stages for all employees: base core competency (mastering the fundamentals of their role within your specific organization) and advanced core competency (excelling beyond expectations, typically achieved between six months and three years). From there, employees choose their own specialty path.
For clinical staff, those six paths are: clinical specialty (advanced certifications and expertise), brand ambassador (community impact and organizational storytelling), program development (designing and piloting new service programs), entrepreneur (co-ownership of new clinic locations), training and mentorship (developing and elevating colleagues), and management. For administrative staff, the six paths are: HR specialty, marketing specialty, finance specialty, customer experience specialty, operations specialty, and entrepreneur. This kind of multi-directional growth framework is strongly supported by employee engagement research, which shows that opportunities for growth and development are among the top drivers of long-term retention.
Brandon's most compelling example is the entrepreneur career ladder for clinicians. Over ten years, a clinician progresses from clinical core excellence through specialty focus, mentorship, fiscal leadership, and marketing, before co-creating and eventually co-owning a new clinic location. That is a career path that offers genuine growth, financial upside, and deep purpose without ever requiring someone to become a people manager.
The takeaway is clear: when you design your career ladders thoughtfully, you stop losing great people because you gave them nowhere to go. Growth is not one-size-fits-all. Build multiple paths, and you will find far more people choosing to stay.
