Career advancement often gets measured through visible changes: a higher title, a larger salary, a bigger department, or a move into senior leadership. But the opportunity that looks most like a promotion may not always be the one that best prepares a laboratory professional for long-term growth.
Sometimes, the stronger career move is lateral. It may involve unfamiliar work, a smaller operation, a more difficult team, or no immediate increase in compensation. What it offers instead is experience that expands a leader’s capabilities and prepares them for responsibilities they could not take on before.
During her presentation at the 2026 Lab Manager Leadership Summit, April Day, senior director of clinical pathology for Geisinger Health System, described how one such decision shaped her path into system leadership.
“Just because an opportunity presents itself, is it going to align you with where you want to go?” Day asked.
When lab professionals weigh competing opportunities, they should consider not only what each role offers now, but also which one will better prepare them for where they want to go.
Separate career drivers from ego drivers
Earlier in her career, Day wanted to become an operations director. When an operations director position in client and customer support became available, it seemed to provide the advancement she had been working toward.
The position offered a senior leadership title, a familiar team, established processes, a short commute, and responsibility within the system’s largest facility. An assistant vice president even contacted Day to ask whether she planned to apply.
At the same time, Day had another option: remain in a temporary site supervisor assignment at a small critical access hospital. That choice represented a lateral move rather than a promotion. The facility was unfamiliar, the commute was longer, and the laboratory faced major operational changes. Most of the team members were approaching retirement, and the work required technical and project experience Day had not yet developed.
On paper, the operations director role looked like the obvious next step. But Day reached a different conclusion after examining what drew her to each opportunity.
“The recognition of senior leadership and the largest facility in the system—they were ego drivers,” Day said. “They were not career drivers.”
The site role lacked the immediate recognition of the director position, but it offered opportunities to manage an information system transition, implement new instrumentation, standardize laboratory practices, develop new policies, and participate in the design and construction of a new laboratory.
Those experiences would expand the range of leadership challenges Day could demonstrate that she had handled.
The distinction between ego and career value does not mean leaders should avoid promotions or compensation increases. It means those rewards should not become the only criteria. A larger title can represent meaningful progress, but it can also keep a professional within the same functional boundaries. A lateral role may create more growth if it introduces new responsibilities, disciplines, or organizational exposure.
Evaluate what the opportunity adds
When lab professionals compare two roles, they often focus on what they would receive: pay, title, schedule, location, or authority. Those factors matter, but a career-focused evaluation should also consider what the person would gain the ability to do.
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Day chose the site supervisor role because it would allow her to build a stronger record of leading change.
“I could make statements like, ‘I led a team through an LIS transition. I implemented all new instrumentation. I standardized a hospital. I designed and built a laboratory,’” she said. “Those are career growers. Career developers.”
Lab leaders can use a similar approach when evaluating a new role or assignment. Instead of reviewing only the job description, consider what accomplishment statements the opportunity could add to a future resume.
Could the role provide experience:
- Managing a budget or capital request?
- Leading a team through operational change?
- Implementing or validating instrumentation?
- Working across several laboratory disciplines?
- Improving quality, safety, or turnaround time?
- Developing supervisors or technical leaders?
- Overseeing a relocation, renovation, or expansion?
- Collaborating with departments outside the laboratory?
- Presenting results to executive leadership?
- Managing operations across several sites?
A role does not need to address every gap. It should, however, build capabilities that align with the scale and scope of the position the professional hopes to hold later.
Consider whether the role expands your range
Career growth often depends on the ability to solve problems in unfamiliar settings. A lab leader who remains within one technical area, team, or facility may develop deep expertise but have fewer opportunities to demonstrate adaptability.
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The site supervisor position required Day to lead employees who had more technical experience than she did. Rather than presenting herself as the expert, she told the team what she could contribute and what she needed from them.
“I can facilitate change, and I can get things done,” Day recalled telling the staff. “I will get you to the end. But I need you to tell me exactly what I need to do.” That transparency allowed team members to contribute their knowledge while Day provided structure and direction. Together, they completed the required changes on schedule.
The experience also required Day to adjust her leadership approach. The value of the assignment came not only from the projects she completed but from learning how to lead when she did not have the deepest technical knowledge in the room.
Lab managers may face similar transitions when moving between clinical and research environments, taking responsibility for a new analytical discipline, or leading employees with longer tenure. Those assignments can reveal whether a leader can listen, build trust, and use the team’s expertise rather than relying only on personal technical authority.
Connect one experience to the next
A lateral move provides career value when the experience supports later opportunities. Day’s work at the critical access hospital became the basis for several subsequent assignments.
Because she had helped design and build a laboratory, she was later asked to establish the lab for a new hospital. Because she had shown that she could guide a team through extensive change without major disruption, she received another interim leadership assignment. Those experiences positioned her to become an operations director and, later, senior director.
This progression illustrates why career decisions should not be evaluated as isolated events. One assignment can create the credibility required for another. A project that appears outside a manager’s formal responsibilities can become evidence of readiness for broader leadership.
Lab professionals should still examine the risks. A lateral move that adds workload without authority, support, development, or meaningful experience may not serve the same purpose. Leaders should ask what success will look like, which resources will be available, what decisions they can make, and whether the work will produce outcomes they can document.
