[jefffoster]

Whilst I agree that technical leadership is one aspect that skilled engineers can develop (and I agree that it's important for all engineers) there are many more.

For example, developers can grow into great product managers. Some can deep-dive into a topic and develop by sharing that knowledge through conferences, blogs etc. Some are interested in the people management side of things (scrum, kanban etc). All of these (and much more) are incredibly valuable and increase the value to the company they work for.

The challenge for companies is to recognize all these degrees of value (and reward them appropriately). I did some work to try and capture this with a visualization called a skills map (http://blog.red-gate.com/skills-maps/). Any feedback greatly appreciated!