Most of us have grown up assuming that career success is vertical. We climb the ladder and move from junior positions to senior ones. The problem is that today's work is no longer divided up into small tasks that require higher and higher layers of management to put together.

Rejection often triggers painful emotional doubts about our own competence, so we either try to avoid it or pretend that it doesn't matter. A more constructive approach is to remember that rejection can be beneficial.

Part of a leader's job is to help employees connect to and relate to that value so that the company's mission becomes part of their own dream. Without that connection, employees will, at best, go through the motions.

There's no doubt that hierarchies can be dysfunctional and make it difficult to get things done. You would think the key to a healthy hierarchy is a well-drawn organization chart, but it has more to do with company culture and behaviors.

To retain high-potential employees, the conventional wisdom is deceptively simple: identify, develop, and nurture them. But translating this into action is much more difficult.